The English language is being taught in Pakistan from its emergence on the map of the world after

decolonizing. It is gaining prominence in education, science and technology. It has become inevitable for
gaining success in one’s life as a whole. It is regarded a standard yardstick to measure an individual’s
success in profession regardless of the field. It is also considered a status symbol among the masses.
Recently it is taught from class one with the emergence of new educational policy. Its teaching opens
new perspectives in education yet Teaching English in Pakistan is a difficult task. Both teachers and
students have faced many problems while learning English. The education system of Pakistan is
traditional. Only Grammar Translation Method is more popular in this part of land. Teachers’ centered
classrooms have created situations where students have become more passive and lethargic. There is a
lack of motivation and creativity among the learners. Learners use cramming widely to learn the specific
subjects to get the high grades. No proper attention is paid to the creative side of writing skill.
Moreover, medium of instruction is both in English and Urdu. Urdu is taught as national language here.
In addition to it, local languages are learnt as First languages. Such a multilingual culture poses its own
hurdles and obstacles while learning English as Second/Foreign language. English is gaining an immense
importance in Pakistan. In the context of Pakistan, students struggle to express themselves in English
even though the subject is taught as a second language and the skill of writing is compulsory (Khan,
2011). Hence, this study aims to administer a specific pedagogy, peer feedback.

Such a multilingual culture poses its own hurdles and obstacles while learning English as a
Second/Foreign language. English has an immense importance in Pakistan since its freedom. Pakistan
was a British colony. It has achieved its freedom in 1947 after 150 years of colonial rule by the English.
Hence, English has rooted deep in its soil. The English Language has four basic skills. These skills
integrate with one another. This study focuses only on Writing Skill of the students at HSSC level in
Multan, Pakistan.

“In recent years, the use of peer feedback in ESL writing classrooms has been generally
supported in the literature as a potentially valuable aid for its social, cognitive, affective, and
methodological benefits…” (Rollinson, 2005 p. 23).

Administering the practice of peer feedback in the ESL/EFL writing classroom is not a new concept, and
it has continued to expand as the numbers of English language learners in today’s composition
classrooms increases and instructors are more frequently challenged to maintain their role as primary
feedback provider via one-on-one interactions. Peer feedback is supported by several theoretical
approaches, including process writing (Elbow, 1973), collaborative learning theory (Bruffee, 1984), Zone
of Proximal Development theory (Vygotsky, 1978), and interactionist theories of SLA ―negotiation for
meaning (Long, 1996). Through these theoretical frameworks, studies on peer feedback argue for the
effectiveness of peer feedback in the L2 language classroom (e.g. Jacobs et al., 1998; Tsui & Ng, 2000;
Rollinson, 2005: Lundstrom and Baker, 2009). Some studies (Jacobs et al., 1998, and Tsui & Ng, 2000)
have stated that peer feedback allows more students to participate in the learning process, leading to
the generation of more ideas and encouraging participants to spot strong and weak features of each
others’ texts. The theory is that peer commentary will encourage collaborative learning, enhance
learners’ roles as authentic readers, raise their awareness of strengths and weaknesses, and encourage
ownership of text. Also, peer-training and preparation is promoted in individual studies (Rollinson,
2005). Peer feedback is especially beneficial when it provides feedback based on the reviewer‘s own
writing (Lundstrom and Baker, 2009).

This chapter has been organised in a systematic manner. It elaborates the background of the study. It
also discusses the place of the English language in Pakistan at College level that leads to the competence
or incompetence of students for English as a second language. The chapter also includes the statement
of the problem. It also contains objective(s), significance, delimitations and some limitations and
organisation of the study.