Impact Of Automated Writing Evaluation Feedback And Human Feedback On Text Revision In Chinese EFL Learners' Argumentative Writing

Feedback plays an essential role in developing students' writing proficiency.It is necessary to understand how students utilize feedback during the revision to provide effective feedback on students' writing and help them improve their writing proficiency.The present study adopted a mixed-methods design in which quantitative and qualitative data were collected to investigate the impact of automated writing evaluation(AWE)feedback and human feedback on text revision in Chinese EFL learners' argumentative writing.The quantitative data comprised all the feedback provided to students,including revisions and the scores for the first and final drafts.The qualitative data included a stimulated-recall interview,two semi-structured interviews and reflective journals.In light of the Communicative Language Ability model and Toulmin's model,this thesis proposed a tentative analytic model for English argumentative writing,consisting of lexico-grammatical,textual,pragmatic,and sociolinguistic features.The major findings are presented as follows:First,the major feedback providers included the AWE program,the writing instructor,and peers.Moreover,the students used self-assessment as feedback.The AWE feedback included corrective feedback and uncorrective feedback.The former focused on lexico-grammar and texture,while the latter included learning tips such as collocation and synonyms.The teacher paid the most attention to the functions of different elements of the essay,followed by lexico-grammatical,textual and sociolinguistic features.Peers gave more feedback on lexico-grammar issues and the functions of different elements.Second,feedback influenced the revisions that students made on different drafts.In response to AWE feedback,the students made more lexico-grammatical revisions.The students made more revisions to address the functions of different elements after teacher feedback.Revisions influenced by peer feedback were made primarily to address the functions of different elements of the essay and to correct lexico-grammatical errors.Selfrevisions were influenced by the feedback offered on different drafts.An analysis of the qualitative data showed that the students had positive experiences with all three types of feedback.Third,the revisions influenced the quality of the final drafts.Comparisons of the first and final drafts demonstrated that the quality of the final drafts was significantly improved.The factors that influenced the effectiveness of the revisions included the students' attitudes towards feedback,the difficulty of the revisions,the quality of the feedback,the student's writing proficiency,the student's attitudes towards the writing task and revisions,and time.Moreover,the study identified the students' difficulties with English argumentation,such as the failure to provide adequate evidence to support claims and a lack of audience awareness.The present study also found that corrective feedback could not help students develop ability to correct errors.Based on the research findings,the present study suggests that the feedback providers should consider students' individual characteristics when responding to their writing.AWE could be incorporated into course design when it is used in writing instruction.Students could correct linguistic errors with the help of AWE,while the teacher and the peers focus their feedback on the most difficult problems that students have with writing.