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The Effects Of Teacher Feedback On The Writing Of Chinese EFL Learners: An Empirical Study

Posted on:2007-07-11Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1115360185984383Subject:English Language and Literature
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This dissertation presents the results of two studies that investigate the effects of teacher feedback, which means error feedback and teacher's comments on content and organization of students' writing, on the improvement of the accuracy, fluency, and complexity of Chinese EFL learners. In Study 1, two groups of students were compared: (1) the experimental group which received semester-long feedback on their writing and made revisions to both grammatical and lexical errors, and their content and organization between assignments, and (2) the control group which received the same feedback and did not make any revisions between assignments. The results of Study 1 show that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in accuracy assessed by analytic scoring and objective measures (T-unit analysis) and in writing quality scaled by holistic rating. Both groups evidenced significant progress in content and organization measured by analytic scoring over the semester.Study 2 further examines what kind of teacher feedback or treatment functions well. Three different kinds of teacher feedback involved are these: direct correction (hereafter called Correction), codes of types of errors (hereafter called Codes), and simple underlining (hereafter called Underlining). Treatment in this study means a combination of two kinds of teacher feedback mentioned above. Forty-eight students were randomly assigned to three groups: (1) Correction and Codes; (2) Correction and Underlining; and (3) Underlining and Codes. Analysis of the data indicates that students, of the three groups experienced improvement in both writing quality assessed by holistic scoring and their accuracy, fluency, and complexity scaled by objective measures. However, there were quantitative differences in the improvement of students of different treatment groups, with subjects who received "Correction and Underlining" in G2 experiencing significant gains in the accuracy of their writing compared to those in the other two groups.
Keywords/Search Tags:teacher feedback, EFL writing, accuracy, fluency, complexity
PDF Full Text Request
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