Video and text feedback on ESL writing: Understanding attitude and negotiating relationships

Abstract

Technology enables multiple modalities (e.g., audio, video, and text) for providing feedback on students’ writing. As interest in technology-mediated feedback grows, it is important to consider how different modalities can impact instructors’ evaluative language choices. These choices can influence student emotions and student-instructor relationships. Thus, a better understanding of language use across feedback modes can provide insight into how interpersonal considerations can be negotiated in feedback. In this study, we explore how video and text impact language choices in the formative feedback of three instructors in US university ESL writing courses. Feedback on 136 essays was analyzed using the appraisal framework, with a focus on attitude. This analysis provides a nuanced, linguistically grounded understanding and description of how evaluation is conveyed, while highlighting the social or interpersonal aspects of language within the communicative context of responding to student writing. Text feedback was found to be more negative, while video offered more balance and showed greater concern for social relationships in the feedback process. Finer grain analysis suggested that instructors may engage with students differently across feedback modes, prompting future possibilities for instructor training.