UAE High School Students' Attitude Towards Traditional and Computer-Mediated Peer Response

Abstract

Using blogs has recently become popular in learning ESL. However, not much research has been done in use of blogs in ESL writing classes. In this research, I conducted a study in my English writing classes to explore how UAE High School students perceived the effectiveness of using peer response in both electronic and traditional modes. My study involved a total of 44 students in two of my grade 10 classes: one using traditional process writing and the other using blogs. I collected data by administering questionnaires to the students before and after applying peer response. I also interviewed some of the students. I analyzed the data quantitatively and qualitatively to look for differences in the attitudes within the same group before and after the study. I also looked at the qualitative data after the study to see how similar and different the attitudes of the two groups were. I gained some insights about how students in each group perceived peer response in writing classes. Though there was some disagreement about using peer response in the traditional class, students from both groups had generally positive attitudes. Students in the traditional class thought it was useful to have teacher feedback besides peer response, while students in the computer-mediated class were more autonomous and recognized that technology could be used as an effective tool for facilitating writing.