Effects Of Teachers’ Different Feedback On English Writing Of Non-English Majors

This empirical study explored whether teachers’direct and indirect feedback had different effects on English writing of non-English majors, and which kinds of feedback could improve students’writing ability mostly. Meanwhile, it studied students’attitudes to different kinds of teacher feedback and which of them they preferred.The whole study lasted for about four months, employing tests, questionnaires and the interview as the instruments.90non-English majors who were in their second year in the university took part in the teaching experiment.49students majoring in Educational Technology from the Education Institute received direct feedback and41students majoring in Information Management and Information System from the Business School indirect feedback. The subjects finished five pieces of writing with argumentation as the genre in the four months. The scores of students’final examination in the previous term were considered as the proficiency test to check the consistency of students’ performance. The first questionnaire conducted before the teaching experiment aimed to investigate students’attitudes to teacher feedback. In the teaching experiment, the subjects were asked to write a piece of writing at least120words about the required content within30minutes. The English teacher corrected students’compositions in terms of direct feedback and indirect feedback respectively. After students got their writing exercise book, they corrected their composition based on the feedback and comments their English teacher provided. Then, the teacher revised the composition for the second time to give a final score. At the end of the teaching experiment, all the students were asked to finish the second questionnaire which was about the effects of teacher feedback on students’English writing and their preference for it. Finally, the writing scores in the final examination on January11th’2013were served as the post-test.All the data from the experiment were analyzed and treated by means of SPSS17.0. And together with other materials in the study, the research findings were as follows:First, teacher feedback can improve the English writing ability of non-English majors. And the two ways of feedback can affect students’ English writing from different aspects.Second, most students think both direct feedback and indirect feedback have advantages and disadvantages. But they prefer that teachers locate the mistakes and give some hints, letting them correct them on their own.Third, students’ preference for teacher feedback is closely related to their English proficiency and their learning motivation. Besides, students with low English proficiency and low motivation prefer direct feedback from teachers.Fourth, no matter how students’ English proficiency and learning motivation are, they attach great importance to teacher feedback and hope to receive positive feedback and comments from teachers, especially feedback about grammar.