Peer Review Circles: The Value of Working in Triadic Groups and Oral Observational Peer Feedback in the Development of Student Feedback Literacy

Abstract There has been increasing debate about the effectiveness of peer feedback, especially the way learners actively engage with and act upon the feedback (Lam, 2017). Yet research has shown that well-managed peer feedback offers a host of social, cognitive and linguistic benefits (Sun & Doman, 2018). This paper looks at the perceptions of 24 teachers of English from Myanmar who experienced and evaluated a new way of organizing the peer feedback process known as Peer Review Circles (PRCs). In PRCs, learners work in groups of three, with two giving feedback on the work of the third, who listens, reflects on and only then responds to the comments. It was found that teachers perceived this arrangement to increase the quantity, variety and reliability of feedback, create a more conducive feedback atmosphere and aid the development of “soft/transferable” skills. Respondents identified teachers’ and learners’ lack of familiarity with this new approach, time constraints and the possibility of conflicting comments as potential difficulties of PRCs. To overcome these, respondents suggested providing training to teachers and learners, especially through modelling. This paper sheds light on a different way of managing peer feedback, PRCs, highlighting the benefits of working in triadic over dyadic groups and the value of oral observational peer feedback to develop students’ feedback literacy. The key implications relate to peer review training and the need to focus not just on procedural aspects but also on developing learners’ emotional competence to help sustain their language learning within today’s educational landscape.