Proofreading: How de facto language policies create social inequality for L2 master's students in UK universities

Abstract

While feedback has been found to serve multiple functions, how feedback socialises master's students into the academic discourse community remains under-investigated. The current study aims to enrich this discussion by focusing on the self-reported, feedback-related experiences of two Chinese MA TESOL students at a UK university. Multiple-sourced data were analysed to investigate (a) the identity categories into which teacher feedback (written and oral) attempted to socialise the focal students; (b) if positioned into undesirable identity categories, how the students reacted to such challenges; and (c) how their reactions to identity challenges affected their investment in feedback-related academic literacy practice. Teacher feedback was found to socialise the students into three identity categories with differential legitimacy in the academic discourse communities. Both students encountered identity challenges, which prompted them to reconfigure power relations, claim more powerful identities, and adjust investment in feedback-related academic literacy practice accordingly. However, they took different approaches to reframing power relations, and their reconstructed identities also differed in terms of congruence. The findings call for more research on the sociocultural and sociopolitical dimension of teacher and student feedback literacy, and suggest the necessity for teachers to provide identity-empowering feedback to facilitate students' academic discourse socialisation.