How One Educator Uses Write the World to Support English Language Learning

“I think Write the World can help non-native English speakers very well. Because this website not only allows users to upload their own articles, but also receive peer review from people from various countries. This can enrich the article and gradually improve the author's writing ability.” 

This is a quote from one of my ESL students, a Korean-Chinese (朝鲜族 조선족) Year 12 girl. As an ESL teacher (of writing and speaking) in Korea and China for 15 years, I’d like to share with other teachers how I use Write the World (WtW) to support one key skill highlighted by my student: peer review.

In my classroom, I have used peer review as a stepping stone for younger teenagers. I ask them to engage in the practice; then, when they get older, I invite them to build upon their peer review skills while also writing and submitting pieces on the WtW platform.

The Benefits of Peer Review for English Language Learning

I’ve seen that writing peer reviews for pieces on WtW – either on their own or with some help from a teacher – can help ESL students improve their English writing skills, and they’re especially motivated to do so when submitting their own pieces to Write the World’s monthly competitions.

The pieces on Write the World are short and written by people their own age, so my students find reading them more helpful than studying famous novels. I can relate. I personally pay more attention and better understand written assignment guidelines if I read and “judge” other people’s writing rather than my own. So, it seems to me that writing peer reviews before submitting their own pieces on WtW will help ESL students (and all teenage writers) engage more deeply with the prompts and thereby produce better pieces. 

Doing so also increases their chances of receiving feedback on their own pieces from fellow teenage writers. ESL students’ written communication in English is often largely limited to their interactions with adult teachers. They can learn and be motivated about their English abilities and story writing skills in a different way when they have opportunities to receive feedback from teenagers around the world, and (in many cases) whose first language is English. 

Using Peer Review as an Assessment Tool

Peer review can be a good task for conducting writing exams with ESL students, especially after they have already thoroughly covered academic essay writing and exams like TOEFL. 

I have used peer review in this way by asking my students to write a review (in the form of a 400-word essay) for a past runner-up piece from WtW  (you can find previous winners and runners up on the Write the World blog). I include the same peer review questions that accompanied that monthly competition as well as questions about vocabulary, sentence construction, and what the piece can teach students about story writing. An example is, “Could any of the vocabulary or sentences be improved, such as the balance of short and long words or where the writer starts and finishes sentences?” I also add a question focused on intercultural communication: “Is there anything that requires background info in footnotes (for Korean and Chinese readers to understand)?” 

It has been good for my students to engage closely and enthusiastically with a finalist’s piece on WtW. One student wrote that he could really see the quality of the piece and that he thought “it deserved to be a winner.” Another student showed detailed analysis skills and furthered her ability to generate good story ideas as a result of engaging in peer review.

Close Reading & Competitions

Studying winners and runners-up in the peer review category of WtW’s competitions, together with the Guest Judges’ comments, is another activity I have shared with my students. 

One activity is to ask students to search for any significant differences between the winning and runner-up peer reviews and encourage them to remember these stylistic differences when submitting their own peer reviews in future competitions. 

There was one competition, for example, where the winning peer review included both answers to the prescribed questions and in-text comments (about specific words, ideas, etc.), whereas the runner-up peer review only included answers to the prescribed questions. Consequently, I always encourage my students to do both parts of the peer review process. They can learn more and help the writer more, while also increasing their chances of being selected as a winner.   

-> Find all the competition winning, runner-up, and peer review pieces here.

Social and Emotional Benefits of Peer Review

Peer review on WtW can help ESL students develop skills for giving feedback respectfully and clearly in English as well as receiving (by both recognizing and responding to) it. It’s a good option for students who want to practice independently, because WtW offers numerous resources for students’ use: general guidelines and content moderation, peer review questions, and access to past peer review winners’ works accompanied by Judges’ comments. These offerings provide guided practice in a safe environment. 

Educators could also use peer review on WtW to point out English feedback customs, enhancing cross-cultural communication skills. With my own ESL students, I highlight the custom of declarative statements with the second person “you” when giving praise (e.g. “You do a good job describing…”). I then highlight the custom of using questions and removing the second person “you” when giving constructive criticism (e.g. “Would it be better to…?”). 

These skills are valuable because there can sometimes be misunderstandings due to a combination of linguistic (e.g. ESL students being at the interlanguage stage) and cultural differences when giving constructive criticism; for example, feedback from Chinese or Korean ESL speakers can sometimes sound quite blunt to English speakers.

-> Get more peer review resources here.

College and Career Readiness

Students have a greater chance of being selected as the winner or runner-up in the peer review category in Write the World’s monthly competitions since they are allowed to submit multiple peer reviews to a single competition. 

These are the numbers of submissions in the piece versus peer review categories of the first three competitions in 2025: 921, 647 and 415 written pieces compared with 212, 118 and 80 peer reviews. 

Being selected as a winner or runner-up has many benefits. One of my students was the runner-up in the first WtW peer review competition he entered. He can now use the certificate and screenshots – alongside his TOEFL and AP scores – to help demonstrate his English ability when applying to university and/or part-time jobs in the future. 

It is also encouraging for him to be selected as the runner-up in a “real-life” competition run in English (and not an “artificial” ESL exam) and one with submissions from many teenagers whose first language is English. 

About the Author
Anthony was born and raised in New South Wales, Australia. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from UOW and certificates in TESOL and youth work, and studied theology, Latin, history and music in Catholic seminaries in Melbourne and Sydney. He loved literature, music, sport, camping and travelling (both within Australia and overseas such as Europe and America) while growing up. He has been teaching ESL (primarily writing and speaking) and various supplementary courses (e.g. western culture, art and religion) in Korea and northeast China since 2010. He has also enjoyed meeting people, travelling to many cities and scenic areas, learning Korean and Chinese, and completing an online master’s degree in applied linguistics while living in Korea and China. He became interested in incorporating fiction writing (such as graphic novels) and Write the World into ESL classes in order to provide ESL students with classes focused on character development and holistic abilities in English and character development rather than classes purely focused on passing tests and entering university. He is currently completing an online bachelor’s degree in psychology and remains interested in the Bible, art, sport, travel and movies.