An Empirical Study On The Effects Of Different Types Of Teacher Written Feedback On High School Students' English Writing Quality

Teacher Written Feedback,an important form of teachers' evaluation of students' writing and the main basis for students to revise their compositions,plays a crucial role in improving students' writing skills.This study empirically explores the effects of different types of Teacher Written Feedback on high school students' English writing quality,specifically analyzing the effects of direct and indirect feedback on high school students' language use in English writing,and the effects of specific and general feedback on high school students' content and organization in English writing.This study aims to answer the following three questions:1)Can direct feedback and indirect feedback improve high school students' language use in English writing? If so,which type of feedback is more effective? For different writing level learners,which type of feedback is more effective?2)Can specific feedback and general feedback improve high school students' content in English writing? If so,which type of feedback is more effective? For different writing level learners,which type of feedback is more effective?3)Can specific feedback and general feedback improve high school students' organization in English writing? If so,which type of feedback is more effective? For different writing level learners,which type of feedback is more effective?To answer the above research questions,the researcher conducted an 18-week empirical study at an Anqing high school with a total of 88 students in classes 207 and 208.Class 207 is Experimental Class 1 and Class 208 is Experimental Class 2,and each of them was respectively divided into higher and lower writing level groups of equal numbers.The researcher gave direct feedback and specific feedback to EC1 and indirect feedback and general feedback to EC2 to analyze the language use,content and organization in students' English writing.Pre-test and post-test comparisons and group comparisons were made to determine either direct feedback or indirect feedback was more effective in language use,and either specific feedback or general feedback was more effective in content and organization.The results of the study show that: 1)Both direct and indirect feedback can improve high school students' language use in English writing,and there is no significant difference in the effects.Moreover,direct feedback is more effective for lower writing level learners,and indirect feedback is more effective for higher writing level learners.2)Both specific and general feedback can improve high school students' content in English writing,and specific feedback is more effective than general feedback.For different writing level learners,specific feedback is more effective.3)Both specific and general feedback can improve high school students' organization in English writing,and specific feedback is more effective than general feedback.For different writing level learners,specific feedback is more effective.The pedagogical implications of this study are as follows: 1)Teachers should attach importance to the role of Teacher Written Feedback in English writing for high school students and provide comprehensive feedback on language use,content and organization in their English writing.2)Teachers should provide different types of Teacher Written Feedback to students with different writing levels.This study may be deficient in terms of the experimental period and sample numbers,and thus it is suggested that future studies extend the experimental period,increase the sample numbers,and add qualitative analysis to further explore the effects of Teacher Written Feedback on high school students' English writing.