Teachers' Written Feedback In The Teaching Of High School English Writing

Teacher feedback is an integral part of composition instruction. It is essential for every language teacher and researcher to consider how to make the most of teacher feedback in order to improve EFL learners'writing. However, there is little published research on how school teachers in EFL contexts respond to student writing. Especially little is known about why teachers respond to writing in the ways they do, and if discrepancies exist between teachers'feedback practices and recommended principles, the reasons that may account for the disjuncture. The present study examines the written feedback provided by 9 English teachers in High School Affiliated to Soochow University to 90 student texts, followed up by interviews with 6 of the teachers to find out the factors that have influenced their responding practices. The findings will tell to which extent the feedback given by the teachers in that school complies with the principles recommended in Hong Kong curriculum documents, which serves as a reference for the teaching of writing in the mainland. The interview data highlight four important issues that shed light on teachers'feedback practices: lack of guidelines, teachers'beliefs and values, exam culture, and (lack of) teacher training. It is concluded that teachers'feedback practices are influenced by a myriad of contextual factors including teachers'beliefs, values, understanding, and knowledge, which are mediated by the cultural and institutional contexts, such as philosophies about feedback and attitude towards exams, and social issues pertaining to teacher autonomy.