Managing Peer-Feedback Resistance In Pre-Service Language Testing And Evaluation Course

Abstract

This study examines the interactional practices of senior-year preservice teachers who are tasked with designing and constructing language tests as part of their coursework in the Language Testing and Assessment course, an essential component of the English language teaching curriculum. Building on the task of test construction, preservice teachers engage in group-based, reciprocal peer feedback sessions to identify potential issues in their test items and improve their overall quality, validity, and reliability. To closely examine the interactional dynamics unfolding during these item-review sessions, the study adopts a micro-analytic approach, conversation analysis, exposing the emotionally laden nature of peer feedback. The findings reveal that emotionally charged moments often gave rise to heightened resistance, rejection, and disagreement among peer feedback groups as a response to detailed peer reviews. Accordingly, the emergence of resistance and interactional misalignment among peers led to sequence expansion, involving iterative cycles of evaluation, justification, and recommendation until a joint consensus is achieved. Despite extensive research on resistance encounters in medical interviews, couples counseling, and service exchanges, the field remains notably deficient in studies examining peer feedback practices in the higher education context. Therefore, this study aims to fill this gap by exploring the dynamics of peer feedback interactions among preservice teachers, shedding light on how resistance unfolds and is managed through the emergent phenomenon, reference to testing principles.