PhD candidates and peer review: Reflections on teaching an Academic English module in an emergency situation

The idea of using peer feedback in second language writing classes is not new and dates to the 1980s. Despite the abundant evidence supporting the integration of peer review into L2 writing courses, it was not before the outburst of the Covid-19 pandemic that this activity was incorporated in the Academic English module (AEM) module for PhD students at the University of Trieste. This paper adopts a reflective teaching perspective to report on a case study in which peer review of students’ abstracts was introduced as a ‘new’ teaching technique in the AEM delivered online due to the pandemic. Based on the responses to two questionnaires, this paper illustrates how the students tackled two peer review tasks and examines the participants’ attitudes and feedback, with the aims of stimulating a critical reflection on the experience and formulating concrete plans to make peer review an integral part of future Academic English modules.