Developing EFL teachers’ feedback literacy for research and publication purposes through intra- and inter-disciplinary collaborations: A multiple-case study

Abstract

The growing pressure for publication in prestigious English-medium journals and scholars’ increasing need to participate international research communities have given rise to the initiatives of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses or English for Research and Publication Purposes (ERPP) feedback service. Providing such ERPP feedback to students’ research papers brings forward the necessity for EFL teachers, who often give the feedback, to develop ERPP feedback literacy. Given the paucity of research on this topic, the purpose of this study is thus to explore how EFL teachers could develop their ERPP feedback literacy through feedback provision practices. Drawing upon teacher-provided written feedback collected from four EFL teachers over five years (i.e., 2017–2022), semi-structured interviews, and teachers’ verbalizations while giving feedback and stimulated recalls, this multiple-case study shows that through intra- and inter-disciplinary collaborations when giving ERPP feedback, EFL teachers perceived an overall improvement in their ERPP feedback literacy. In particular, they moved beyond targeting feedback to surface-level linguistic errors and developed awareness in disciplinary knowledge construction in ERPP writing. We argue that the intra- and inter-disciplinary collaborations can help develop EFL teachers’ ERPP feedback literacy, and hence strengthen their EAP teacher identity.