Patterns of interaction during peer feedback exchange in online EFL writing lessons

Little is still known about interaction patterns learners form while exchanging peer feedback particularly when working with different peers. To address this gap, this study analyzes patterns of interaction while exchanging feedback on academic paragraphs written by 16 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners enrolled at a state university in Türkiye. The participants were asked to write three academic paragraphs and submit them online. They were paired with a different student for each paragraph feedback session and exchanged their paragraphs. Then they held an online meeting on Microsoft Teams with their partner and exchanged feedback. The meetings were recorded. Next, the students revised their paragraphs considering the peer feedback. They made the changes on their paragraphs only if they found the peer feedback useful and necessary. Patterns of interaction in the recordings were analyzed according to Storch’s (2002) framework. According to it, there are four interaction patterns placed on mutuality and equality axes and named as collaborative, dominant/dominant, dominant/passive, and expert/novice. The results showed that the most common pattern was expert/novice. That means in the majority of the peer feedback sessions reviewers controlled the task, but both participants showed engagement. Around half of the participants were consistent in their patterns both as a reviewer and a writer. This study is believed to shed light on EFL learners’ roles as writers and reviewers. It is also believed that with a comprehensive peer feedback training, learners could be encouraged to form more collaborative patterns, which is associated with better learning outcomes.