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Determining Text-Specific Comments in L2 Peer Response #1024

Sat, Feb 20, 10:30-10:55 JST | YouTube
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In second language (L2) peer response discourse literature, there appears little research on defining specificity in commentary. This case study examines peer response activities for essay assignments in a Korean university’s English writing course. The data comprises asynchronous peer response commentary and revision attempts for final drafts. The coding scheme employs Liu and Sadler’s (2003) codes for area, nature, and type commentary, and then adds a specificity dimension to account for specific and generic features. Results indicate that students employed various noteworthy text features – including but not limited to hedging techniques, vague expressivity, and faux specificity – when constructing commentary. Revision ideas were more often accepted for surface-level or generic-dimension commentary, suggesting simplified concepts were more impressive to essay writers. The results provide useful implications for how to model response in ways that encourage specific or generic idea construction.

Garrett DeHond

Garrett DeHond

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Garrett DeHond is an assistant professor of English Linguistics and Language Technology at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He is also a doctoral candidate in Education and the University of California, Davis. His frequent research interests include second language writing, discourse analysis and digital affordances. He can be reached at dehondg@gmail.com.