Self-regulation and student engagement with feedback: The case of Chinese EFL student writers

Abstract

Despite the role of feedback in facilitating self-regulation, learners' under-engagement with feedback in second language (L2) writing has been little researched. The multifaceted nature of feedback makes it challenging for L2 writers to engage with, and benefit from, teacher feedback. From the perspective of self-regulated learning, this qualitative case study examined how skilled and less-skilled self-regulators engaged with teacher written feedback in a Chinese EFL context. Data from multiple sources, including student texts, teacher on-script feedback, error logs, reflective journal entries, and interviews, revealed that the relationship between feedback and subsequent outcomes is mediated by students' engagement with the feedback process. It was found that skilled and less-skilled self-regulators displayed different degrees of engagement across cognitive, behavioural and affective dimensions. The findings may be attributed partly to students’ awareness of, and ability to interpret, feedback, agency of translating feedback into action, and willingness to scrutinise feedback and respond with appropriate strategies to use it. We conclude by highlighting the interaction among cognitive, behavioural, and affective engagement and offering some important pedagogical implications.