H. Peer Assessment in Writing
Assessment is a key element in language learning. There are some variants of assessment in writing. One of them is peer assessment. Referring to Falchikov in
Ako‟s book, “peer assessment requires students to provide either feedback or grades or both to their peers on a product or a performance, based on the criteria of
excellence for that product or event which students may have been involved in determining
”.
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Moreover, Liu and Hansen in Bijami, et.al., emphasized that peer assessment is sources of information and a medium of interaction that involves
comment and critique for each other‟s‟ writing in both written and oral formats in the process of writing. It is a way that learners assume roles and responsibilities normally
taken on by a formally trained teacher, tutor, or editor.
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On the other words, in peer assessment, every student has to give their personal comment, suggestion, and
correction to their friend‟s writing in both written and oral formats based on the certain criteria of the material.
I. Advantages and Disadvantages of Peer Assessment
As Bijami, et. al., said in their article, there are some advantages and disadvantages of peer assessment.
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They are: 1.
Advantages a.
Peer feedback encourages student to participate in the classroom activity and make them less passively teacher- dependent
b. Using peer feedback can lead less writing apprehension and more confidence as
well as establish a social context for writing. c.
Peer feedback is beneficial in developing critical thinking, learner autonomy and social interaction among students.
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Wāhanga Whakapakari Ako, Assessment Matters: Self-Assessment and Peer Assessment, New Zealand: Teaching Development Unit, 2012, p. 10.
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Maryam Bi jami, et.al., “Peer Feedback in Learning English Writing: Advantages and
Disadvantages”, Journal of Studies in Education 3, No. 4 2013, p. 93.
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Ibid, p. 94.
d. The practice of peer feedback allows students to receive more individual
comments as well as giving reviewers the opportunity to practice and develop different language skills
2. Disadvantages
a. Some students believe teacher feedback is more qualified
b. Most peer responses focused on product rather than the processes of writing, and
many students in L2 contexts focused on sentence- level errors local errors rather than on the content and ideas
J. Conceptual Thinking
According to the writer, writing is an activity for expressing someone‟s personal thought towards something, someone, and so on. Moreover, writing is a skill
that quite challenging for language learners to master because they need to know some information about the organization of idea, the appropriate language use, the
grammar, etc. EFL learners need a media that they can use for practicing, reviewing, and discussing their writing with the teachers or the other students without anxiety
and shyness. Therefore, a Facebook may be a new media that they can take advantages of to learn English and increase their writing skill.
The most successful social networking site is Facebook.
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This Web site has hundreds of millions of users and it is an enticing way for students to form an online
community. One of the problems, however, is the possibility of privacy infringement as students get more confident in their English writing skills and become more open
to talk about their private lives online. Not only that, but also students can practice their English writing skills everywhere. It may be necessary for teachers and students
to discuss some ground rules for using Facebook before starting to use it. Besides,
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Robert Chatrand
, “
Social Networking for Language Learners: Creating Meaningful Output with Web 2.0 Tools”, Knowledge Management E-Learning: An International Journal 4, No.
12012, p. 99.
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