Peer -Editing: A Strategy to Enhance EFL Students' Paragraph Development

Abstract

Abstract This paper was aimed at investigating the effects of peer-editing technique as a strategy to enhance the EFL students’ paragraph development during the third semester, academic year 2011-2012. The students were learning how to develop a paragraph through peer-editing technique. The course of writing paragraph was conducted during third semester in academic year 2011-2012 for all sophomores who were studying at the English Education Program, Galuh university. In this present study, the writer addressed two research questions, those are: (1). Does peer-editing technique give the effective results to the students’ paragraph development? (2). To what extent does peer-editing effect to the students’ ability in writing paragraph? Related to those research questions, the writer then utilized qualitative design particularly case study design to gain the data, where he administered questionnaire and interview to twenty sophomores as the respondents. The respondents themselves were selected purposively from 2E up to 2G. The results of the present study showed that most of the students got benefits from the use of peer-editing technique in their writing paragraph. Then, peer-editing technique also gives a quite significant contribution to students in understanding how to develop a paragraph. Even though the students feel enthusiastics that learning writing can be effective not only guided by the teacher but also guided by their classmates or peers. In short, learning through student-centered approach gives more joyful in creating interaction between peers to edit their work. The results mentioned in the preceding point are very important for the writer as the teacher that student-centered learning particularly the use of peer-editing technique can enhance the effectiveness of teaching writing particularly in writing paragraph development. Nevertheless, the writer is also aware that the teacher’s review is needed to be the final assessment to check the students’ work and understanding to get the maximal results in their learning process particularly in developing their paragraph.

Key words: peer-editing, teaching writing, student-centered learning,