Augmenting EFL learners’ writing performance and perceptions: the pedagogical efficacy of teacher-mediated peer assessment

• Teacher-facilitated peer assessment improves EFL students’ writing performance significantly. • The intervention displayed substantial effects in terms of content (partial ŋ2 = .38) and grammar (partial ŋ2 = .36) on writing performance. • Peer assessment positively influences students’ critical thinking, motivation, confidence, self-efficacy, and social skills. • Results support integrating teacher-assisted peer assessment into EFL writing curricula. Different studies designate the application of peer assessment is well-known within educational contexts. However, scholarly analysis into its pedagogical usefulness remains inconsistent, particularly within EFL writing environment. Consequently, this study investigates the efficacy of teacher-m e diated peer assessment in enhancing EFL students’ writing performance and perceptions. A non-equivalent control group pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design was employed to address the research inquiries. The study involved two intact groups comprised 60 second-year students majoring in economics. These intact groups were assigned into experimental group (N=30) and the other as the control group (N=30) through a lottery method non-randomly. The students in the experimental group engaged in writing exercises focused on paragraph composition while receiving teacher-facilitated peer assessment, whereas their counterparts in the control group performed identical writing tasks but were exclusively evaluated through teacher assessment. Data were collected via pre- and post-writing tests. Moreover, Peer Assessment Perception Questionnaire (PAPQ) was administered to the experimental group participants to complement the data from the tests. The data were analysed using adjusted mean, one way MANCOVA with follow up ANCOVAs. The results revealed that teacher-m e diated peer assessment significantly improved the experimental students’ writing skills in terms of content (partial ŋ2 = .38) and grammar (partial ŋ2 = .36). However, the improvements in paragraph organization, vocabulary, and mechanics were statistically insignificant suggesting longer-term interventions and more directed strategies to considerably influence these writing aspects. The survey results also disclosed teacher-mediated peer assessment enhances students’ writing, critical thinking, and social skills while fostering reflective, self-regulated, and collaborative learning, signifying the integration of teacher-facilitated peer assessment into the writing curriculum.