Abstract:

This paper focuses on an analysis of two correction techniques used to provide feedback on written assignments in English as a foreign language (EFL) in the context of Spanish Secondary Education: teacher and peer correction. Our perspective is accuracy-focused and we have used participant observation and interpretive analysis of teacher and peer correction of written tasks in order to determine which technique was more appropriate so as to improve accuracy in writing. The efficiency of the feedback provided by the teacher was observed to depend on students’ level of foreign language proficiency. Peer correction was seen to be a motivating technique especially useful for raising students’ awareness of rhetorical and linguistic aspects to be taken into account in essay writing. However, this correction technique highlighted students’ difficulties in identifying errors and their lack of objectivity. The analysis revealed both teacher and peer correction’s strengths and weaknesses although it pointed out that they can be viable solutions for improving accuracy in EFL writing, if applied taking into account learners’ characteristics.

Keywords:

EFL, second language writing, feedback, teacher correction, peer correction, accuracy.