PEER COACHING IN WRITING CLASS: DOES IT REALLY WORK?

Abstract

A class with mixed ability students needs extra care. Some students learn very fast and other students need more time to get into the topic presented. The fast learners finish their tasks earlier, then, they start to get bored. Meanwhile, the slow learners still struggle to complete the assignment and start to ask the students who sit next to them about vocabulary, structure, and how the task should be done correctly. This difference made teachers had an idea to pair the students up. A student was coached by another one. A fast learner was paired with a slower one in order for them to work cooperatively and effectively. However, there were some unexpected problems arouse. They sometimes did not enjoy working together and they had different learning style. The teacher also found out that students could not always follow the instructions correctly even though they were already paired. Therefore, the discussion provides some positive and negative responses about the peer coaching either from the strong learners or the weak learners, although all pairs could finish the task quite well in the classroom. Finally this paper will suggest a number of ways to (1) fulfill students need in completing writing tasks in pair work (2) improve their quality of writing.