Effects of reciprocal peer feedback on EFL learners’ communication strategy use and oral communication performance

While most studies focus on individual training of oral communication in English as a Foreign Language (EFL), this study took a social constructivist perspective in examining the effect of an interpersonal process, that is, peer feedback, on the development of oral communication performance and communication strategy use. A mobile application was developed to facilitate learners’ engagement in discussion tasks, replay their conversation as well as carry out peer feedback. To examine the effect of mobile-assisted peer feedback, a quasi-experimental was conducted at a vocational university in Taiwan for five weeks. Forty EFL participants were assigned to an experimental group (n = 20), who received peer feedback on their oral communication performance and strategy use, and a control group (n = 20), who received no peer feedback on their oral communication ability and strategy use. The results show that the use of peer feedback enhanced students’ oral communication performance but did not improve their communication strategy use. The findings suggest that with the support of mobile-based peer feedback, students were able to monitor their oral production and provide/receive corrective feedback that enhanced their overall communication performance. It was also found that the feedback provided by the students was not concrete enough to address the use of the target communication strategies. However, the peer feedback data show that students tended to provide varying communication strategies that were not taught in the study but were considered beneficial to their overall oral communication performance. Possible explanations for the findings and future directions are discussed in this paper.