Teacher Written Corrective Feedback Research Articles

Student engagement with teacher and automated written corrective feedback on L2 writing: A multiple case study

The present multiple-case study, based on the multi-dimensional perspective on student engagement with CF proposed by Ellis (2010), set out to scrutinize students’ behavioral, cognitive, and affective engagement with written corrective feedback (WCF) provided by two different sources: teacher WCF and automated written corrective feedback (AWCF) provided by Writing Mentor. To this end, four Iranian EFL learners—two limited proficient and two modestly proficient writers—were selected purposefully from two sections of an academic writing course, one providing teacher WCF and the other AWCF. Participants in both sections wrote five argumentative essays during an academic term, received feedback on grammar, usage, and mechanics, and made revisions. The results demonstrated that the participants had different engagement levels and were categorized as highly engaged, moderately engaged, and minimally engaged students. In section 1, both participants who received teacher WCF were behaviorally and cognitively engaged with the feedback; however, one participant spent more time, used more resources, and showed more revision acts. Regardless of their behavioral and cognitive engagement level, they both demonstrated deep affective engagement with teacher feedback. In section 2, while one participant who received AWCF demonstrated deep and active engagement in all three dimensions, the other participant was reluctant to respond to the feedback and demonstrated a minimal level of engagement. Findings indicate that students’ engagement with WCF, whether provided by a teacher or automated writing evaluation system, is influenced by students’ beliefs and attitudes toward feedback and the sources of that feedback. Students’ writing proficiency was not clearly or consistently related to their degree of feedback engagement.

A comparative study of the engagement with written corrective feedback of Chinese private college students

Previous research has explored how L2 students with one specific level of English proficiency engage with teacher written corrective feedback (WCF) underpinned by a tripartite dimensional construct of student engagement in the context of Chinese public universities. Yet, scant attention has been paid to how students of differing proficiency levels engage with teacher WCF in a Chinese private college context. Based on a quadripartite construct of student engagement, this case study has explored how L2 Chinese students with high proficiency (HP) and with low proficiency (LP) cognitively, affectively, behaviorally and agentically engage with teacher WCF. Data collected from multiple sources were examined, including drafts of student essays, teacher WCF, student immediate self-retrospective verbal reports and semi-structured interviews. The study has found imbalances among the four dimensions of engagement, with relatively high affective engagement and less extensive cognitive, behavioral and agentic engagement, which was mediated by the interplay of individual factors like language proficiency, writing self-efficacy and learner belief and contextual factors like student–teacher relationship. The findings contribute to an understanding of the multifaceted and dynamic nature of HP and LP students’ engagement with teacher WCF and provide some implications for both school administrators and teachers in Chinese private colleges.

Written corrective feedback in the lower secondary EFL classroom

For decades, scholarly debates have been concerned with the effect of corrective feedback (CF), both written and oral, on L2 language development. Much of the research that supports written corrective feedback (WCF) comes from short-term focused feedback studies, representing a type of feedback practice not necessarily applicable in classroom contexts. This has pointed to a need for more classroom research of authentic WCF and its effect on written learner language. Attempting to explore authentic classroom data longitudinally, this article presents a Norwegian case study of two English teachers’ WCF provided to three students during three years of lower secondary EFL instruction. The student texts are part of the TRAWL (Tracking Written Learner Language) corpus and were collected from obligatory mock exams. The texts came with teacher WCF as well as revised versions. Semi-structured interviews with the teachers provided information about the teachers’ practices and beliefs related to WCF. The collected data was analyzed qualitatively and later discussed against cognitive, motivational, and sociocultural theories. The process of tracking changes in error patterns confirmed some of the issues with using accuracy and global error scores as a measurement for improvement and development, interpreted as proof of learning in language acquisition research. The data further suggests that students do not engage with feedback enough to benefit from its learning potential.

Medical School Students' Preferences for and Perceptions of Teacher Written Corrective Feedback on English as a Second Language Academic Writing: An Intrinsic Case Study.

This intrinsic case study investigated English as a foreign language (EFL) medical students' preferences for and perceptions of teacher written corrective feedback (WCF) on their academic writing. Chinese-speaking second-year first-semester undergraduate medicine majors (n = 71) enrolled in an academic EFL "reading to write" course at a university in northern Taiwan were recruited as participants. Qualitative content analysis, as well as some descriptive statistics, was used to investigate data gathered from participants' responses to an open- and closed-ended questionnaire. The questionnaire enquired about their preferences for and perceptions of teacher WCF relating to writing structure, writing content, and writing mechanics. Qualitative content analysis of two in-depth semi-structured interviews with the English teacher uncovered why the participants preferred certain WCF types and perceived them as helpful. Questionnaire data revealed that students showed a preference for WCF relating to writing structure over content and mechanics, and direct feedback over indirect feedback for both writing content and structure. Compared to writing structure and writing content, the examples given by students of the most (n = 25) and least helpful (n = 14) feedback were predominantly related to writing mechanics. The interview transcript data underscored the influencing factors of EFL medical students' preferences and the perceived benefits and challenges related to feedback. These findings suggest that writing teachers should consider the specialized preferences of particular learner groups (e.g., EFL medical school students) prior to administering feedback.

It takes two to tango: Investigating teacher-student interactions related to written corrective feedback with Activity Theory

While research on written corrective feedback (WCF) has flourished in the past two decades, not many studies have probed the contextual factors impacting on the effectiveness of WCF in-situ. Even fewer studies have focused in on how the teacher-student relationship may shape WCF and what factors in turn could shape that relationship. This study addresses this gap in research by investigating teacher-student interactions related to WCF over time in a private institute. The study used a case study design. Thematic analysis of interviews conducted with two teachers and four of their students as well as a careful analysis of students’ essays with teacher feedback revealed that the teacher-student relationship not only influenced the amount of teacher WCF, but also students’ tendency to seek clarification about feedback and the accuracy of their revision. Through the lens of Activity Theory, three factors were identified shaping the teacher-student relationship: goals alignment, expectation fulfillment and power relationships. Pedagogical implications are proposed based on these findings. • Teacher-student relationship plays an important role in feedback activity. • Nature of teacher-student relationship impacts on amount of teacher WCF. • Teacher-student relationship influences students’ clarification-seeking tendency. • Goals, expectations and power hierarchy shape teacher-student relationship.

EFL Teachers' Beliefs and Practices in Using Teacher Written Corrective Feedback on Students' Writing

This study is a case study investigating two EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding teacher written corrective feedback (WCF) on their students’ writing in a governmental senior high school in Indonesia, using questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and teachers’ think-aloud protocols. The results show that both teachers’ actual WCF practices used four types of WCF, which are direct corrective feedback, indirect CF, metalinguistic CF, and unfocused (comprehensive) CF, despite the way they deliver WCF is different. They provided WCF on all five aspects (grammar, vocabulary, content, mechanics, and organization), however, their WCF’s distribution was unequal and they emphasized on different aspects. Several teachers’ beliefs align/correspond with their actual practices, while the others result misalign. The teachers’ beliefs on WCF differ from each other depending on several factors related to the teachers themselves (e.g. learning and teaching experiences), their workload, time constraints, and students’ proficiency level which might contribute to the (mis)alignment of their beliefs and actual practices. Therefore, teachers’ beliefs might not always be reflected on their actual practices. This study implies that the teachers need to take professional training related to WCF and they are suggested to cooperate with students to achieve the goals of teacher written corrective feedback.

Teachers’ attempts at focused written corrective feedback in situ

Previous research on comprehensive/focused written corrective feedback (WCF) has been dominated by the experimental/quasi-experimental tradition, with low ecological validity and limited pedagogical relevance, and without sufficiently recognizing the complex issues that influence teacher WCF practices in authentic classrooms. To fill this gap, this study adopts an ecological approach informed by a complexity perspective to investigate two secondary teachers’ attempts at focused WCF in the Hong Kong EFL writing context. Data were gathered for one academic year from interviews with teachers and students, classroom observations, students’ writing, as well as pre-and post-writing tests. The findings suggest that focused WCF is feasible in authentic classrooms when it is aligned with writing instruction and provided on preselected error types and selective errors based on individual students’ needs, providing an impetus for teachers to strengthen their writing pedagogy and freeing them up to enhance feedback on other areas of student writing. The study points to the potential of focused, student-specific WCF in enhancing written accuracy as well as students’ engagement with revision, and concludes with implications for the pedagogy of WCF in similar contexts.

Effect of teacher and peer written corrective feedback on writing components in EFL classrooms

This study aimed to investigate the impact of teacher and peer written corrective feedback (WCF) on Indonesian senior high school students’ writing performance. A total of 71 Indonesian senior high school students from Grade X participated in this study; 36 were provided teacher WCF and 35 peers WCF. To collect and data, the participants were asked to write a legend essay. Using qualitative data analysis, we aimed to reveal the effectiveness of teacher and peer WCF in improving students’ writing performance. Adapted scoring rubric was employed to measure students’ overall writing performance, and competencies in relation to writing components such as content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. The results revealed that peer WCF can better enhance students’ writing abilities compared to teacher WCF. Furthermore, students who received teacher WCF showed substantial improvement in performance relating to all writing components except mechanics. In contrast, peer WCF enhanced students’ organization and vocabulary related performance.
 HIGHLIGHTS:
 
 Peer WCF is more effective than teacher WCF in enhancing Indonesian senior high school students’ writing performance, especially in writing legend texts.
 Teacher WCF helped significantly improve four components of writing competence: content, organization, vocabulary, and language, while peer WCF positively impacted organization and vocabulary components.
 Combining both teacher and peer WCF could be more beneficial in improving students’ writing achievement than either type of WCF alone. 

Understanding individual differences in lower-proficiency students’ engagement with teacher written corrective feedback

ABSTRACT While research on written corrective feedback (WCF) has proliferated over the past three decades, scant attention has been paid to how lower-proficiency (LP) students engage with teacher WCF in specific contexts and why they (dis)engage in the ways they do. This case study explored two Chinese LP students’ engagement with teacher WCF in English writing for an in-depth understanding of the individual differences in their engagement and the influencing factors. By analyzing teacher WCF, students’ essay drafts, immediate oral reports, and retrospective interviews, the study revealed that (1) their engagement was distinctively different in terms that one’s engagement was relatively extensive, especially in the affective aspect, but the other’s engagement was at a relatively limited level, characterized by negative emotions and scant cognitive engagement, and (2) their differences in engagement could be attributed to the individual factors of student beliefs and goals, and the contextual factor of teacher-student relationship.

Teacher's Written Corrective Feedback on Student's Translation Improvement

This research aims to investigate the teacher's written corrective feedback toward the students’ translation improvement. It is focused on the student's translation on lexical and grammatical mistakes in translating the source text into the target text. Translation is an activity that aims to facilitate the communication process by interpreting the information received in one language into another language. However, the mistakes while translating cannot be avoid by the translator or the students. The students are commonly done mistakes lexically and grammatically. To overcome the mistakes, the teacher will be a facilitator in correcting the student's translation. Implementing of written corrective feedback is provided teacher to correcting the student's mistakes by writing their comments, correction of errors, etc on the student's writing translation. Based on the analysis, the result indicates that the students make mistakes in translating, the students are most commonly made some mistakes in lexical and grammatical errors.

Written Corrective Feedback Strategies in English-Chinese Translation Classrooms

While research on written corrective feedback (WCF) in second language education has proliferated over the past two decades, only limited information is available on the role of WCF in training translators and how WCF is used and implemented in translation classrooms. To fill this gap, this classroom-based case study examined the nature of a Chinese-English translation instructor’s WCF strategies and their influence on student translation revisions. The analysis of student translation drafts, teacher WCF and student revisions reveals that while the instructor used mixed WCF strategies to comment on student translation errors, she mainly provided indirect and unfocused WCF; metalinguistic feedback/reformulation was seldom used in her WCF practice. The WCF strategies were found to positively influence student revisions and to enhance the accuracy of their translated texts. Such findings provide insight into the nature and effect of WCF strategies in the context of translation teaching and learning and illustrate how WCF strategies are used in English-Chinese translation classrooms.

Student engagement with teacher written corrective feedback in EFL writing: A case study of Chinese lower-proficiency students

Abstract While recent research on teacher written corrective feedback (WCF) has highlighted the importance of students’ engagement with WCF for understanding its effectiveness, little research has investigated lower-proficiency (LP) students’ engagement with WCF in EFL writing classes. Underpinned by a multi-dimensional conceptual framework of student engagement with WCF, this case study has explored how 12 Chinese LP students engaged affectively, behaviourally and cognitively with teacher WCF in EFL writing. It examines data collected from multiple sources, including drafts of student essays, teacher written feedback, student immediate oral reports and semi-structured interviews. The study has found that while the participants’ affective engagement was relatively positive, their behavioural and cognitive engagement was not extensive in a sense that their behavioural engagement did not necessarily result in greater language accuracy, and there was scant awareness at the level of understanding the WCF, especially for the indirect WCF. It has also found that students’ lower English proficiency may negatively influence their cognitive and behavioural engagement with WCF and cause imbalances among the three sub-dimensions of engagement. The findings contribute to an understanding of the multifaceted and dynamic nature of EFL lower-proficiency students’ engagement with teacher WCF.

Improving Grammatical Accuracy in Thai Learners' Writing : Comparing Direct and Indirect Written Corrective Feedback

Written corrective feedback (WCF) is widely used to point students to the grammatical errors in their written work and help reduce them. This paper reports a quasi-experimental study that compared the effectiveness of direct and indirect teacher WCF in a Thai context. One hundred and twenty Thai students at two public universities in southern Thailand were assigned to write argumentative essays within a treatment period; each treatment had 60 students. The feedback was given by four ESL/EFL lecturers at the two universities. Grammatical aspects focused on were tenses, subject-verb agreement, articles, singular/plural nouns, prepositions and adjectives/adverbs. Means for the number of errors were obtained at three points, namely, pretest, immediate posttest and delayed posttest. The findings revealed that time and WCF type as main effects showed differentiated results on all six grammatical aspects. Interaction effects between time and WCF were found for tenses and subject-verb agreement. For between-subjects effects, indirect WCF was more effective than direct WCF. For within-subjects effects, generally the differences in the mean values were significant between pretest and delayed posttest, but not between pretest and immediate posttest. These findings have implications for writing instruction and research in an ESL/EFL tertiary context.

Effects of Corrective Feedback on Grammatical Accuracy of EFL Writing

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) on grammatical errors as a method for improving English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing. The research questions we asked were what the most commonly occurring errors are in Korean students’ English writing and whether WCF leads to the improvement of grammatical accuracy. Thirty-one Korean college students participated in an experiment which lasted for 12 weeks from March 30 until June 19 in 2015. In the experiment each participant took two-hour long writing classes and received WCF on grammatical errors in four essays. The results of the study showed that the most common errors were in the use of articles, prepositions, punctuation, verb-formation, and singular for plural, which is consistent with earlier studies (Cha, 1990; Han, 2014). It was found, however, that there was not a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-tests in terms of accuracy, suggesting that WCF is not helpful for improving grammatical accuracy of L2 writing. Informal interviews with seven participants revealed four possible reasons as to the ineffectiveness of WCF as a method of improving EFL writing: ① students’ beliefs that grammatical errors are inherent and consequently inevitable parts of L2 writing; ② instructors’ unclear feedback; ③ habit-formed errors; and ④ intimidating red-pen based corrections. This study examined whether WCF is effective for grammatical accuracy of L2 writing. An empirical study involving 31 Korean college students was carried out to see what the most common error types are and whether teacher WCF leads to grammatical accuracy. Teacher WCF was provided on the five most common errors participants made in their pre-test writing. The results demonstrated, however, that teacher WCF on four essays was not effective to improve participants’ grammatical accuracy.