German Learners' Beliefs About Peer Interaction and Peer Feedback

The present study investigated learners' beliefs about peer interaction (PI) and peer corrective feedback (PCF) in the language classroom. A group of third-semester German learners (the -PCF group) participated in peer interaction activities, specifically conversations and discussions with other learners. Another group of third-semester German learners (the +PCF group) engaged in the same activities and students were encouraged to point out their peers' errors during these activities. Afterward, semi-structured interviews were conducted with individual learners to gain insights into their beliefs about peer interaction and peer feedback. Interview data from 35 randomly selected learners showed that learners in both groups held positive beliefs about peer interaction and peer feedback. However, results also indicated that learners in the +PCF group felt more comfortable correcting other learners and were more likely to believe their peers' corrections when compared to learners in the -PCF group. Overall, these results suggest that both peer interaction and peer feedback have their place in language classrooms, especially when combined with recent research underscoring their positive effects on language development (e.g., Sato & Lyster, 2012).