Investigation On Error Feedback Beliefs And Strategies In L2 Writing

This thesis reports an empirical study on L2 teachers' and students' error feedback beliefs and strategies in L2 writing. The subjects of the study include 32 teachers from different universities in Jiangsu Province, who have the experience of teaching L2 writing and 68 sophomore students majoring in International Trading from School of Continuing Study in Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The instruments used in this study include two questionnaires and interviews with some of the teachers and students.The study, which lasted for almost a year, yields the following findings:1. The teachers' feedback beliefs and strategies1) 90% of the teachers think error correction is time consuming and heavy load, and the purpose of providing feedback is to help students avoid the same errors so as to improve their L2 writing.2) 95% of the teachers believe they ought to mark students' L2 compositions selectively. However, in practice only 15% of them do so; the rest tend to mark all of their students' L2 compositions.3) Half of the teachers prefer certain ways to correct students' errors, which they think work the most effectively.4) 60% of the teachers would like to provide commentaries on students' L2 composition, either at the marginal or at the end, and think it helps a lot for students; however, only 40% of them would like to do so. 25% of the teachers express that they seldom do it.5) 70% of teachers do not think that students would pay attention to their teachers' feedback.2. The students' beliefs and strategies1) Students think that teacher feedback is useful and will help them a lot.2) Opposite to teachers' beliefs, students think they treasure their teachers' feedback, meanwhile they report that they care most about the marks.3) Half of the students say that they have no difficulty in understanding the teachers' feedback and they prefer feedback on form rather than on content.4) They would like to choose self-correction, and then ask for help when they don't know how to correct errors. 5) As for recast, more than a half of the students think the second draft is better owing totheir teachers' feedback.In the light of the findings, the author suggests that both teachers and students ought to be aware of the discrepancy between beliefs and practices, and reflect on their practices so as to develop the effectiveness of coming professional workshops.