Shu Mei Gloria Chwo
Hung Kuang University, Taichung, Taiwan
schwo@hk.edu.tw,
Empowering EIL Learning with a Web 2.0 Resource: an Initial
Finding from the Cross Campus Storybird Commenting Study
Bio data
Gloria Chwo
is an associate professor at the Dept. of Applied English
Language,Hungkuang University in Taiwan. Not only has she developed several eLearning
programs for university level reading courses, but has also served as a memberof the
National Entrance Examination Committee Board in designing reading andwriting
assessments since 2009. Her research interests include word readingprocessing,
literature circle, EFL and ESP teaching methods and educational technology. She also was
awarded as a Super Teacher in Taichung County in 2013.
Abstract
While much has been written about peer feedback on handwritten, word-processed, and
more recently web-published EIL (English as an international language) composition,
little is still known in detail about the nature of the last. Yet with the increase in
utilization of web resources for teaching EIL, the related move towards learner online
collaborative / social learning necessitates research to enhance our understanding of this
form of EIL learning as well as the potential benefits of such seamless learning.
This study collected anonymous asynchronous nonreciprocal feedback from students in
three universities participating in a cross campus commenting activity on peer narrative
compositions posted on the Storybird internet site. The writers were of two levels of
proficiency(freshman and senior). Results from qualitative and quantitative analysis show
a rich variety of kinds of response. In general the focus was on the content more than
the form and included a considerable amount of genuinely communicative response to
the message in the story being read. Though the lower proficiency writers elicited rather
less response than the more proficient ones, the quality of feedback was the same and
often showed signs of politeness strategies such as starting with a positive comment to
soften later negative comments, using more positive than negative comments, and
establishment of an interpersonal tone with explicit use of first and second person
pronouns. The findings suggest that this type of feedback is potentially valuable to
complement conventional teacher feedback, and that the cutting edge technology of Web
2.0 can be valuably integrated into the formal curriculum for EIL learning.
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