Abstract
AbstractDespite the abundance of research on feedback in second language development, there is little agreement on what type of feedback is the most effective. Four perspectives emerge from the literature that investigates feedback, specifically: Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Second Language Writing (L2W), Sociocultural Theory (SCT) and the Sydney School’s genre pedagogy. The SLA and L2W approaches investigate the effectiveness of corrective feedback, the SCT and the Sydney School perspectives explore feedback as a supportive mediation tool. However, both corrective and supportive types of feedback gain importance in L2 literacy development. Therefore, this paper aims to categorise written feedback as a corrective and supportive tool drawing on the Sydney School’s genre pedagogy. An analysis of the feedback instances indicates that written feedback is more effective when it is cast in relation to students’ ZPD. The categorization presented in this paper offers a rich framework for L2 writing instructors, as it situates written feedback as a mediation tool based on the related notions of ZPD and scaffolding.
Highlights
This paper aims to explore how written feedback can be theorized as a mediation tool based on Vygotsky’s (1978) notions of scaffolding and Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
The data for this paper comes from a recent doctoral study (Devrim 2013), which aimed to develop an approach to teaching grammatical metaphor (GM) through online written feedback
GM can be defined as non-typical ways of meaning making, e.g. transforming verbs and adjectives into nouns to be able to discuss them as facts, and managing causality within clauses rather than using conjunctions between clauses
Summary
This paper aims to explore how written feedback can be theorized as a mediation tool based on Vygotsky’s (1978) notions of scaffolding and ZPD. Most of the research studies conducted in this field highlight the role of corrective feedback in second language development, they consider written feedback as a corrective tool within the authority of the teacher. The two main publications that discounted the role of feedback were Krashen’s (1982) Principles and practices in second language acquisition and Truscott’s (1996) The case against grammar correction in L2 writing classes. These two publications resulted in a new wave of research that underscored the role of feedback in L2 teaching
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