The Influence Of Teacher Written Feedback On English Writing Of Junior High School Students

Teacher written feedback, including direct feedback and indirect feedback, is an important part of the English writing teaching. However, the feedback effectiveness is controversial. On the one hand the research on whether teacher written feedback can improve the accuracy, syntactic complexity and writing achievement got different conclusion. On the other hand a number of researches were conducted choosing advanced English learners, while the studies based on education of middle and low English learners at the stage of elementary teaching are fairly less.Basing on the Feedback Theory, Noticing Hypothesis, the Input and Output Hypothesis, the study observed the effect of different teacher written feedback on the junior high school students' writing accuracy,syntactic complexity and writing achievement. This study, from September to November, lasted 8 weeks choosing 30 students in Wuwei No. 23 High School as the subjects. Every subject was required to write seven argumentative assignments. They were divided into two groups, one receiving direct feedback on both content and form, the other receiving indirect feedback also on content and form. In the 8th week, the data of assignment1 and assignment 7 was analyzed by SPSS 17.0 then the conclusion was given.Thus, the present study tries to answer the following questions:(1) Which kind of teacher feedback can improve writing accuracy, direct feedback or indirect feedback?(2) Which kind of teacher feedback can improve syntactic complexity, direct feedback or indirect feedback?(3) Which kind of teacher feedback can improve writing achievement, direct feedback or indirect feedback?The findings are as follows:(1) As the paired sample test shown, both direct feedback and indirect feedback from the teacher are effective for improving the writing accuracy in new pieces of composition; direct feedback and indirect feedback do not improve the syntactic complexity of writing; and indirect feedback and indirect feedback can improve the writing achievement.(2) As the independent sample test of the post-test data shown, there are no significant differences between these groups.Based on the empirical studies, this dissertation offers some suggestions and pedagogical implications on how to teach and correct writing in the China-specific context.