Student Engagement With Peer Feedback in L2 Writing: A Multiple Case Study of Chinese Secondary School Students

Abstract While the past few decades have witnessed a growing body of research on peer feedback and student engagement, little attention has been paid to student engagement with peer feedback in the secondary school classrooms. Based on multiple qualitative data including semi-structured interviews, stimulated recall, original, revised and final writing drafts as well as peer discussion recordings, this case study investigated how secondary school students engaged with peer feedback in behavior, cognition, and affect from both the feedback giver’s and receiver’s perspectives and what factors may influence their engagement with peer feedback. Data analysis showed that 1) student engagement with both giving and receiving peer feedback demonstrated dynamic and complex interactions among three dimensions; 2) students were engaged with peer feedback in different ways while playing the roles of feedback givers and receivers, showing deep engagement as a giver and superficial engagement as a receiver, and vice versa; 3) factors such as language proficiency, self-efficacy, personality and teachers’ guidance were found to influence student engagement with peer feedback. By shedding light on the multi-dimensional characteristics of students’ engagement from bidirectional perspectives, the study offers suggestions for educational practitioners to improve English learners’ engagement with peer feedback in L2 writing classes.