How Does Peer Review Impact Writing Abilities of High School Students?

Since MEXT emphasized developing writing skills in English instruction (MEXT, 2018), high school English teachers face challenges with large class size and heavy feedback workloads (Yamashita, 2023). Some adopt peer review but do not expect it to improve student writing. In fact, few empirical studies have confirmed its benefit for students’ writing skills development. Research in the secondary education context is particularly scarce. This study investigated the relationship between peer review and the improvement in students’ writing abilities in a Japanese EFL high school context. In addition to pre- and post-tests, audio-recorded peer review sessions and interviews were analyzed to determine which aspects of reviewing might affect the students’ writing development. Results show that the frequency of interactions about specific writing aspects during peer review influenced students’ performance in writing a new text. Thus, peer review helped high school students develop their writing abilities.