Who perceives more value of teacher feedback? Exploring the roles of college students’ possible second language selves and language learning strategies

Abstract

Students can only benefit from teacher feedback if they recognise its value for learning. However, there is still a lack of research to investigate the factors influencing students’ perceptions of the value of teacher feedback in the context of learning English as a foreign language. This study investigated the impacts of two significant individual factors (i.e. possible second language (L2) selves and language learning strategies) of 687 college English learners on their perceived value of teacher feedback (i.e. grades and comments) in a Chinese university. Structural equation modelling analyses indicated the following:(i) Ideal L2 self significantly and positively predicted the perceived value of grades, both directly and indirectly (mediated by self-regulation strategies).(ii) Ideal L2 self significantly and positively predicted the perceived value of teacher comments, both directly and indirectly (mediated by social strategies and self-regulation strategies).(iii) Ought-to L2 self only indirectly predicted the perceived value of grades, mediated by memory strategies.The findings highlight students’ proactive roles in the feedback process. Only if students aspire to become proficient English users and frequently use deep language learning strategies, they will perceive more value of teacher feedback and take up it for better learning.