The Impact of Peer Feedback on German Academic Writing Quality Among Masters Students in North Central Nigeria

This study investigates the impact of structured peer feedback on the quality of German academic writing among Masters students at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, North Central Nigeria. Academic writing in German, encompassing formal register, argumentation structure, citation conventions, and disciplinary discourse, represents a high-level skill that many Masters students acquire inadequately through exposure to conventional teacher correction alone. Peer feedback, in which students evaluate and respond to each other's written work using structured criteria, has been shown to improve writing quality in L1 and various L2 contexts, but its application in German academic writing programmes in Nigeria has not been empirically examined. The study employs a mixed quasi-experimental design with 90 Masters-level German students assigned to a peer feedback condition or a teacher-only feedback condition over a fourteen-week academic writing module. Writing quality is assessed using a validated analytic rubric covering content development, organisation, language accuracy, and academic register. Pre- and post-course writing samples are analysed, and student perceptions of feedback effectiveness are gathered through questionnaires. Findings indicate significant improvements in argumentation quality and academic register for the peer feedback group, with smaller advantages in linguistic accuracy. Keywords: peer feedback, German academic writing, Masters students, University of Ilorin, writing quality.