Exploring Students ’and Teachers’ Attitudes towards the Use of Peer Assessment in the Development of the Writing Skill

Abstract

The dissertation in hand investigates the issue of developing students’ writing performance through the use of peer assessment technique. The focal target behind conducting this research is to find out the attitudes of both third year English language students and Written Expression module teachers at Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia Jijel University towards the use of peer assessment in improving third English language learners writing skill. Accordingly, the research in hand hypothesizes that both teachers and learners have positive attitudes towards the use of peer assessment and that implementing such technique would be greatly effective for the enhancement students’ writing skill. The study is divided into two foremost parts using qualitative research; first, it exposes theoretical issues associated with the writing skill and peer assessment. In the practical side, a students’ questionnaire which was addressed to one hundred learners out of two thousand sixty two, classroom observation is carried through attending six written expression sessions with the use of an adopted checklist. At last but not least, the interview is conducted with five written expression teachers. The study findings confirm the research hypothesis and reveal that both teachers and learners have positive attitudes towards the use of peer assessment and that implementing this innovative technique as an alternative way to assess students would be effective in developing the students writing performance. Based on the results obtained, some pedagogical recommendations and suggestions for future research are suggested ultimately.