How Teacher Comments Influence Students’ Motivation for Writing

Abstract

Developing students’ writing ability is known as one of the major goals to be achieved in English teaching and teacher comments are an essential aspect of the English writing course. According to social-cognitive theory, people’s self-efficacy beliefs in their skills and ability to complete tasks influence their motivation. However, there is an inconclusive discussion about the effectiveness of teacher comments on student essays in L1 classrooms; and there is an obvious lack of research about the effects of teacher comments on the motivation of EFL students for writing. Primary data for this study are the subject students’ answers to questionnaires, their responses in the interviews, their essays, and the teachers’ written comments on the students’ essays. The researcher finds out that the teacher should affix much attention to their immediate comments, both written and verbal, which can affect writing apprehension and students’ self-efficacy beliefs toward writing.