Evaluating peer feedback as a reliable and valid complementary aid to teacher feedback in EFL writing classrooms: A feedback giver perspective

This study evaluated peer feedback as a reliable and valid complementary aid to teacher feedback in Chinese college English writing classrooms. Thirty college students as peer feedback givers and four experienced college English teachers as teacher feedback givers participated in the study. The participants scored 30 English essays holistically and provided written comments on the content, format, language, and organizational aspects of each essay. The results indicated that the reliability of up to three peer feedback givers' holistic scoring is equivalent to that of one teacher feedback giver's scoring; further, peers performed almost as well as teachers in making comments on the content and organizational aspects of English essays. Implications for Chinese college students and their English teachers are discussed.