Date of Award

2010

Thesis Type

PhD

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Education

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

This research investigates how teacher-student and student-student interactions during peer response sessions assist the group members in the revision of the first drafts of their compositions. It also aims to identify the types of scaffolds provided by the class teacher and peers during the teacher-student and student-student interaction sessions. Additionally, this research examines how students revise the first drafts of their compositions based on the verbal and written comments of the class teacher and peers. This case study involves one ESL teacher and a group of six Form Four students, comprising three high-proficiency level (HP) students and three intermediate-proficiency level (IP) students. In accordance with the qualitative research methodology, data was collected through observations, interviews and documentary records. On the whole, eight group writing sessions (four pre-writing and four peer response sessions) were observed over a period of five months. The group writing sessions were carried out to discuss four writing topics in a naturalistic secondary school classroom setting. The data collected was analysed and triangulated to answer the three research questions. Bottomup data driven categories of patterns of development of ideas during peer response sessions and types of class teacher and peer scaffolds were drawn from the transcripts of teacher-student and student-student interactions. The researcher also identified the roles of the class teacher and students during the interaction sessions. Besides, a comparison of the individual first drafts and final drafts of the students’ compositions was done to determine the types of revisions made on the students’ final drafts. The outcomes of the research showed that multiple patterns of interaction emerged as the students were engaged in lengthy and meaningful discussion to generate ideas during the pre-writing sessions and to provide useful feedback during the peer response sessions. The students performed more roles as compared to the class teacher during the peer interaction sessions. Although the HP and IP students played various roles, the former played outstanding and dominant roles in initiating, facilitating and maintaining the peer discussions throughout all the pre-writing and peer response sessions. The findings indicated that there was mutual learning among the HP and IP students. The HP students were found to provide more scaffolds as compared to the IP students and the class teacher to assist the group members to generate ideas during the pre-writing sessions and to assist the group members in their revisions. In addition, the findings revealed that both the class teacher and students supplied more feedback to correct errors at the Surface level than at the Text-base level. However, the peer feedback provided were mostly on Surface level Formal Changes at Universiti Malaya iv the sentence level while the class teacher feedback were mostly on Surface level Meaning-preserving Changes. It is interesting to note that the students utilised more of the peer feedback as compared to the class teacher feedback and the self-correction of errors to assist them in their revisions. Both the HP and IP students emphasised the revision of Surface level errors at the sentence level rather than errors at the Text-base level. Nevertheless, the IP students made more revisions as compared to the HP students. The students in this research perceived the usefulness of the peer response sessions and the process approach to writing. The findings in this research is significant as the peer scaffolds and class teacher scaffolds provided during the teacher-student and student-student interactions as well as through written form helped to bridge the students’ current developmental progress to a higher cognitive level of thinking which enhances their writing skills. The implication of this research is that the class teacher and peer scaffolds provided during the interactive learning sessions served as the key to enhance teaching and learning effectiveness, especially in the area of writing.

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Additional Information

Thesis (PhD) - Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, 2010.

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