Peer tutoring and peer evaluation activities\nincrease the students\u2019 engagement in the learning process. Student tutors\nrequire deeper knowledge and understanding of the task which may lead to better\npreparation for the classes, raising awareness, learning to share with others and\nperforming additional out-of-class activities, e.g. reading, watching\ntutorials, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peer tutoring activities generate\nsignificant benefits for the students. They develop reasoning and critical\nthinking skills, improve self-esteem and interpersonal skills, motivate students\nto communicate by various means, not only face to face but also using latest ICT\ntools, so students\u2019 digital competence may also increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Collaboration and teamwork are key\ncompetences for students. The syllabi academic teachers draw up for their legal\nEnglish and business English courses always include the element of cooperation,\ngroup work, pair work as social competences that graduates require.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project which I introduced into my\nlegal English classes in spring semester 2019 was aimed at deeper engagement of\nstudents in the learning and teaching process. Students were delegated a number\nof peer tutoring tasks which were supposed to give them more responsibility,\nempower them to provide feedback and keep them accountable for the quality of\nthe assignments carried out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The activities which I introduced into my\nclasses were modelled so that they developed the productive language skills of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An important element of each activity was\nthe preparation stage during which students familiarized themselves with the\nrules, language, layouts and standards of modern writing\/correspondence or\npresentations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before they made any attempts of writing\nlegal opinions or paraphrasing contract clauses, they were introduced to plain\nlanguage rules, they studied model answers, analysed layout, etc. Only then\nthey were asked to write a document\/text on their own. Peer tutoring involved\nin writing activities consisted in peer correction at the first stage before\nthe assignment was handed in for the teacher\u2019s grading. For writing tasks\nstudents were also familiarized with the correction code, so that they used the\nsame code and the comments were understood by the authors of the texts evaluated.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the case of presentations students\nstudied the structure and the language of a presentation first and they were\nsent an evaluation sheet with checklist questions to know what their peer\nevaluators will be paying attention to while listening to and collecting\nfeedback for the presenters. During presentations the audience was asked to\nmake notes on the evaluation sheets under four headings: delivery,\ncontent\/structure, body language, and visual aids. After each presentation\naudience commented on the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation and\nasked questions, they had been asked to prepare to rehearse a question and answer\nsession after each presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To help students\nprepare for job interviews a speed interviewing session was organized. Interviewers\nwere given the\ngrid to evaluate the interviewees and had five minutes to talk to each candidate\nafter which time the interviewees moved to another interviewer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a follow up activity the interviewers group together\nto discuss their marks for each candidate and choose the student with the best\nscore to get the job. The interviewees, on the other hand, may discuss the\nquestions they had to answer, which were the most challenging, what surprised\nthem, etc. or decide which interviewer was the most professional, asked the\nmost interesting questions, etc. When the students announce their choices, they\ndiscuss the strengths and weaknesses of individual candidates and the teacher\nmay also give the class some feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the semester the students also prepared\ntheir CVs. The CVs were supposed to be authentic but anonymized. I photocopied\nthe CVs and distributed them among students who worked in groups and were asked\nto provide feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the documents they got\nand choose the best one from the collection provided. On the basis of the peer feedback\nand the teacher\u2019s feedback, students had an opportunity to polish their CVs and\nresubmit them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the semester students filled in a\nshort questionnaire in which they shared their opinion about peer tutoring\nactivities performed during their classes. Most students (73%) admitted they\nimproved their letter writing skills, job interviewing skills, presentation\nskills. The students felt the comments they received from their peers after the\npresentations were most useful (82%). More than a half of students (60%) found\nthe feedback concerning their letters of advice useful, while in the case of\nCVs only less then one third of students (27%) valued the feed and most\nstudents (55%) were not sure whether the feedback they received helped. Eight students\nout of ten enjoyed taking the role of an evaluator and reported that they had\nimproved their confidence. They also confessed that positive comments were\neasier to give and for most of them (78%) their peers assessment was important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quite interestingly, my students considered writing letters of advice as the most enjoyable of all tasks and speed interviewing as the least. The same order is reflected in the question about usefulness of the activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you would like to see a detailed presentation of the results of my survey, please download the presentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Peer tutoring and peer evaluation activities increase the students\u2019 engagement in the learning process. Student tutors require deeper knowledge and understanding of the task which may lead to better preparation for the classes, raising awareness, learning to share with others and performing additional out-of-class activities, e.g. reading, watching tutorials, etc. Peer tutoring activities generate significant … <\/p>\n