TEACHING ACADEMIC ESSAY WRITING TO FIRST-YEAR UNDERGRADUATE EFL STUDENTS THROUGH PEER REVIEW AND PROCESS-BASED DRAFTING

Academic writing is paramount in university education. At university level, students’ knowledge and understanding are largely exhibited and valued through the medium of essay writing (Coffin et al., 2003). This study explores the implementation and efficiency of integrating process-based drafting with peer review to evaluate academic writing skills of freshman students who are studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Transitioning from high school writing to university level academic discourse may create cognitive and linguistic challenges which may lead to stress and academic pressure while they are studying. As a result, many students find academic writing difficult for adjusting with its criteria, structure and vocabulary. Surrounded by socio-cultural theory and process-writing approaches, this article investigates how analytical writing and scaffolded peer review can help students to enhance strategic writing skills and comprehensive criteria. Structured peer review plays a critical role by encouraging students to evaluate peer drafts using clear, criteria-based rubrics. This peer interaction gives opportunity to develop collaborative learning, metacognitive evaluation skills and critical audience awareness. Additionally, effective peer review can create a classroom atmosphere to be more personalized and learner centered by depending on reflective writing and working on feedbacks accurately instead of simply relying on teacher correction. There are 16 distinct benefits of peer feedback in the academic writing context were delineated and subsequently categorized into five categories: affective benefits, cognitive benefits, behavioral benefits, social benefits, and meta-cognitive benefits. Additionally, the process writing makes the class engaged in academic writing progressing through prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing stages to enhance self-expression and creativity. Based on these findings, this study offers valuable insights for educators, curriculum designers, and researchers in the field of English as a Foreign Language writing instruction.