Attitudes and Perceptions of Teachers and Chinese Students Towards Corrective Feedback in L2 Writing

Abstract

Corrective feedback is a concept of second language acquisition (SLA). Previous studies have investigated the definitions, categories, and effectiveness of corrective feedback from myriad perspectives, often choosing English as a second language to conduct research on ESL students. Writing is a challenge for most L2 learners, and written feedback is part of overall corrective feedback. Much research has emphasized the effectiveness of corrective feedback, but how different types of corrective feedback influence L2 learners differently remains unknown. Few studies have combined students’ with teachers’ perceptions of written corrective feedback. Most only emphasized students’ preferences and few studies concentrated on Chinese students. As such, this paper aims to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of teachers and Chinese students towards written corrective feedback in L2 writing, which is beneficial to determine whether teachers can have awareness of students’ perceptions and satisfy their needs according to individual situations, helping them facilitate the accuracy of L2 writing. The results reveal that differences exist between Chinese students’ and teachers’ preferences for written corrective feedback in L2 writing. Both groups think written corrective feedback is effective to enhance L2 writing, and most Chinese students and teachers affirm that different strategies of written corrective feedback should be given according to different error types. Finally, in teachers’ opinions, the most appropriate written corrective feedback for Chinese students is direct corrective feedback and metalinguistic feedback (e.g. using error codes and metalinguistic codes), while Chinese students believe that the most appropriate written corrective feedback is direct and indirect corrective feedback.