Teachers’ translanguaging practices in providing written corrective feedback: An exploratory study of learners’ affective engagement with feedback

Abstract

The present study investigated five intermediate English learners’ affective engagement with teacher-generated written corrective feedback. In addition, the mediating effects of the teacher’s translanguaging practices were examined. The data were collected from a total of 10 student essays with teacher feedback on them, followed by a series of qualitative interviews and stimulated recalls. On five of these essays, the teacher only provided feedback in English, but on the other five, she provided feedback in both English and Persian, the teacher’s and learners’ first language (L1). The analysis of the data showed that some of the learners valued the teacher’s feedback in Persian, while others sought to maximize the written English input they received from their teacher. During the stimulated recalls, some learners also mentioned that Persian feedback would be useful in providing meta-feedback. Moreover, the teacher showed her appreciation for using Persian when providing meta-feedback, but referred to some institutional constraints on using Persian. Overall, this study suggests that some learners may value teachers’ use of their L1 in written corrective feedback, thereby engaging with this feedback positively from an affective standpoint.