Effect of Peer Review Technique on Performance in English Essay Writing among Secondary School Students in Odigbo, Ondo State

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of the Peer Review Technique on performance in English essay writing in Odigbo, Ondo State. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. A quasi-experimental research design was adopted for the study. Specifically, the non-randomized control group design. The study population consists of all Government Senior Secondary School class two (SSII) students in the 2021/2022 academic session. The sample for the study consists of 160 SSS2 students from two co-educational schools in Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State. The experimental group comprised 78 male and female students while the control group comprised 82 male and female students from schools located in rural and urban areas respectively. Both the experimental group and control group were given the same essay writing but the difference is that those in the experimental group were taught essay writing using the Peer Review Technique (PRT), while those in the control group were taught essay writing using the conventional method. The instrument used for data collection was the Essay Writing Achievement Test (EWAT). The data obtained from the trial tests were used to calculate the instrument’s reliability using Kendall’s formula. It yielded an index of 0.75. Mean was used to answer the research questions while ANCOVA was used to test the hypotheses at P<0.05. From the results obtained, it was found that students in the experimental group had higher performance scores in essay writing than their counterparts who were in the control group. Based on the findings, it was recommended that English language teachers should adopt the Peer Review Technique in teaching essay writing.