Does the Feedback Feed Forward? Student Response to and Views of Teacher Feedback in an EFL Academic Writing Class

Abstract

Effective, timely feedback is a fundamental aspect of formative assessment. The core of formative assessment has been defined as comprising two actions: The student must recognize that a gap exists between the current performance and the desired one; and the student must engage in effective action to close the gap. Student knowledge and action in being aware of and attempting to close the performance gap are seen as pivotal in the feedback process. This chapter, based on a third-year EFL Academic Writing class at a university in Japan, focuses on how students respond to feedback provided on the first draft of a research essay, and also how they feel about the feedback process itself. The report compliments an initial research study (White, 2017) comprised of a teacher self-assessment of the types of feedback provided on 21 essay first drafts. This related report looks at how students responded to the feedback provided in their subsequent final draft. The report com pares the first and final drafts of student essays to make some determination of whether the feedback fed forward into a better final draft. The report also includes a student survey to ascertain student views on the effectiveness of the teacher feedback provided in helping them produce a better final draft for summative assessment. Examples of student writing, the feedback provided, and subsequent changes made are included in the report. The report concludes that, on the whole, student final drafts were stronger, better and more clearly written due to student response to the feedback provided. The feedback survey, completed by 23 students, also showed an overall high level of satisfaction with the feedback framework used in this EFL Academic Writing class.