Reviewer stances and writer perceptions in EFL peer review training

Research has shown that reviewers’ stances can impact the efficacy of peer response/review and subsequent revision. The purpose of this classroom-based study was to compare reviewer stances and writer perceptions of/and attitudes toward these stances prior to and after peer review training in an EFL writing class. Eighteen intermediate EFL writers were coached for 2 months to make “revision-oriented” commentary by following a four-step procedure: Clarifying writers’ intentions, identifying problems, explaining problems, and making specific suggestions. Each step characterized the probing, prescriptive, tutoring and collaborating reader stances, respectively. A textual analysis of reviewers’ itemized commentary and retrospective interviews with writers revealed a dominant prescriptive stance among reviewers before the peer review training and a relatively more collaborative stance after training. The researcher discusses the research, methodological, and curricular implications of the findings and recommends a multiple-stance training procedure to better prepare ESL/EFL reviewers in the writing class.