Research on Peer-evaluation in Senior High Schools’ Oral English Teaching

Abstract

Evaluation of the students’ speaking is a key stage in oral English teaching. By evaluation students can get positive and
necessary information about their speaking, making it possible for them to improve their oral competence. But for a long time,
evaluation of students’ speaking in oral English class has been neglected or only dominated just by the teacher in middle schools
in China, which is one of the main reasons for the students’ low level in this aspect. This thesis reports the possibility and effects
of peer-evaluation in oral English teaching in Chinese middle schools. The researcher finds that the student’s peer-evaluation
under the teacher’s direction has achieved a lot. This method can greatly motivate the students to be braver and more interested in
speaking, which has greatly promoted the students to speak and has great active effects in improving the students’ speaking ability,
especially on the students who are shy or poor in speaking. It is also found that the students’ ability of cooperation and attitudes
towards cooperation are well developed by peer evaluation which results in an overall progress of their oral English.