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Feedback On EFL Writing

Posted on:2020-08-08Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:P P GuoFull Text:PDF
GTID:2415330599461484Subject:Education
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Feedback on L2 writing has received considerable attention over the past several decades.Although the majority of feedback studies stressed the effectiveness of different feedback strategies,little is known about whether the research findings have influence upon teachers' feedback practices.Besides,research on teachers' beliefs has indicated that teachers' beliefs are closely related to the provision and effectiveness of feedback on writing.As scant studies have been done on senior high school English teachers' beliefs and practices about feedback on EFL writing in mainland China,this study intends to investigate senior high school English teachers' beliefs and practices about feedback on EFL writing,as well as the relationship between their beliefs and practices.A mixed-method approach was adopted to examine the research questions.An online questionnaire and 22 samples of teacher written feedback were employed to collect data for quantitative analysis.Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were also conducted for qualitative analysis.The questionnaire was completed by 490 senior high school English teachers in 16 autonomous prefectures and cities in Yunnan province,and 12 teachers among them were selected to participate in semi-structured interviews and to provide samples of written feedback.SPSS 18.0was employed to do exploratory factor analysis,frequency analysis,and chi-square analysis.The major findings demonstrated that: 1)Most teachers' feedback beliefs were shaped by their teaching experience and the writing criteria in Gaokao,and they believed in focusing on both local and global errors according to the writing criteria in Gaokao.In an ideal situation,they expected students to shoulder the responsibility to do peer feedback and self-evaluation.Importantly,their beliefs would change in accordance with their teaching experience and different teaching contexts;2)Teacher written feedback has played a dominant role in feedback on EFL writing,assisted by one-to-one writing conferences and peer feedback.The teachers were inclined toconcentrate on local errors,especially errors concerning with grammar and vocabulary.In addition,the teachers tended to use both direct CF and indirect CF,but direct CF was more often used;3)Regarding the relationship between feedback beliefs and practices,the discrepancies were manifested in the mismatches among the acknowledgement of different feedback modes,actual feedback focus on form or accuracy,and the responsibility of providing feedback.The teachers took the responsibility though they deemed that students were expected to learn to analyze and correct their own compositions.Apart from the mismatches,matches existed in the provision of selective CF.Moreover,veteran teachers showed higher degree of congruence between their beliefs and practices;4)Factors influencing teachers' feedback practices included students' individual differences,the amount of time,and the examination culture.Most teachers varied their feedback focus and strategies on the basis of students' language proficiency and attitudes.Besides,large classes and heavy workload caused the teachers to fail to provide detailed feedback.In the exam-oriented culture,being lack of adequate training about corrective feedback,the teachers were deeply affected by the writing criteria in Gaokao.In light of the above findings,this study contributes to understanding the real status quo of senior high school English teachers' feedback beliefs and practices as well as shedding light on teacher education programs.The thesis ends with the limitations of the study and possible avenues for future research.
Keywords/Search Tags:written corrective feedback, teacher beliefs, feedback practices, relationship, senior high school English teachers
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