<![CDATA[Purpose of the study: Critical thinking is central to producing well-reasoned argumentative writing, yet many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners struggle to analyze issues, evaluate evidence, and justify claims when composing analytical exposition texts. This study aimed to examine how peer feedback, as an instructional strategy, contributes to the development of eleventh-grade students' critical thinking skills and writing quality in analytical exposition texts, and to identify the challenges students encounter when engaging in peer feedback. Materials and methods: A qualitative descriptive design was employed, involving 30 eleventh-grade students from a public senior high school in Lamongan, East Java, Indonesia, implementing the Merdeka Curriculum. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 purposively selected students, classroom observation, and document analysis of students' analytical exposition drafts and final texts produced after peer feedback sessions. Students' texts were scored using an analytic rubric adapted from Irwan et al. (2018), covering organization, content, language use, and mechanics. Data were analyzed thematically following the interactive model of Miles et al. (2014), consisting of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification, supported by member checking and triangulation across data sources. Results: Students reported cognitive, linguistic, and affective challenges in providing peer feedback, including difficulty understanding peers' arguments, limited English proficiency, uncertainty in judging argument strength, and fear of offending classmates. Following peer feedback implementation, students' analytical exposition texts were distributed across four achievement levels: Excellent (44-52; n = 8), Good (35-43; n = 5), Fair (26-34; n = 4), and Poor (13-25; n = 3). Higher-scoring texts demonstrated stronger thesis clarity, coherent argument development, and more effective use of academic language, whereas lower-scoring texts showed weak organization and limited analytical depth. Conclusions: Peer feedback is a pedagogically valuable, though cognitively and emotionally demanding, strategy for developing eleventh graders' critical thinking and writing quality in analytical exposition texts. Its effectiveness depends on structured scaffolding, explicit training in feedback literacy, and a supportive classroom climate. These findings offer practical implications for EFL writing instruction under student-centered curricula such as the Merdeka Curriculum.]]>
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