Revisiting Teacher Feedback in EFL Writing from Sociocultural Perspectives

Abstract

While research on teacher feedback has largely been influenced by second language writing and second language acquisition perspectives, little attention has been paid to the contextual and sociocultural dimension of teachers' work. Overall, there is a dearth of discussion on teacher feedback that is influenced by sociocultural perspectives. Drawing on mediated learning experience (MLE) theory, this article discusses the limitations of conventional feedback approaches in English as a foreign language school contexts and underscores the need to replace these approaches with more effective practices typical for the process‐oriented writing classroom, so that feedback can mediate student learning. Informed by activity theory (AT), the article further suggests that providing MLE as a new object of the feedback system and introducing other innovations can lead to more effective feedback and help students improve learning. The article concludes with suggestions for research informed by MLE and AT perspectives.