Kurdish EFL Learners’ Perceptions towards Written Corrective Feedback and Its Types: An Investigative Study

Written Corrective Feedback has been one of the most controversial topics (Waller, 2015), and it has been researched extensively. Still, the lack of research among Kurdish EFL learners made it necessary to conduct the current research. This study focuses on investigating learners’ perceptions of written corrective feedback and its types. It attempts to answer what the Kurdish EFL learners’ perceptions of written corrective feedback are, and what types of written corrective feedback among Kurdish Learners are preferred. Answering these questions is significant as the results can be used by both teachers and learners to improve learners’ writing accuracy. A survey questionnaire was distributed to collect data. After analyzing data, the results reveal that most Kurdish EFL participants were not fully aware of WCF and its effectiveness as a learning tool. However, they still expected their writing teachers to provide them with WCF in writing tasks. Also, the results indicate that Kurdish EFL learners preferred two types of WCF: explicit and implicit WCF. Hence, the results have many pedagogical implications for writing teachers and learners. Firstly, it shows how EFL learners from other countries and contexts perceive WCF, and secondly, results encourage writing teachers to give more attention and value to WCF.

Kurdish EFL Learners’ Perceptions towards Written Corrective Feedback and Its Types: An Investigative Study

Written Corrective Feedback has been one of the most controversial topics (Waller, 2015), and it has been researched extensively. Still, the lack of research among Kurdish EFL learners made it necessary to conduct the current research. This study focuses on investigating learners’ perceptions of written corrective feedback and its types. It attempts to answer what the Kurdish EFL learners’ perceptions of written corrective feedback are, and what types of written corrective feedback among Kurdish Learners are preferred. Answering these questions is significant as the results can be used by both teachers and learners to improve learners’ writing accuracy. A survey questionnaire was distributed to collect data. After analyzing data, the results reveal that most Kurdish EFL participants were not fully aware of WCF and its effectiveness as a learning tool. However, they still expected their writing teachers to provide them with WCF in writing tasks. Also, the results indicate that Kurdish EFL learners preferred two types of WCF: explicit and implicit WCF. Hence, the results have many pedagogical implications for writing teachers and learners. Firstly, it shows how EFL learners from other countries and contexts perceive WCF, and secondly, results encourage writing teachers to give more attention and value to WCF.

Exploring teacher written feedback in EFL writing classrooms: Beliefs and practices in interaction

As an important instructional affordance, teacher written feedback is widely used in second language (L2) writing contexts. While copious evidence has shown that such a pedagogical practice can facilitate L2 learners’ writing performance, especially their writing accuracy, little is known about how novice writing teachers conceptualize and enact written feedback in contexts of English as a foreign language (EFL). To fill this gap, we examined four novice writing teachers’ espoused written feedback beliefs and their actual practices in Chinese tertiary EFL writing classrooms. Based on data from semi-structured interviews and students’ writing samples, we found that they adopted a comprehensive approach to feedback provision, and were most concerned with errors in language, particularly grammar when providing feedback. These teachers almost reached a consensus in their beliefs about feedback scope and feedback focus, but they held varying beliefs about feedback strategies. Additionally, this study revealed the complexity of belief-practice relationships, in terms of the coexistence of consistencies and inconsistencies. Specifically, these teachers’ beliefs paralleled their practices in feedback scope, but their beliefs and practices mismatched with regard to feedback focus and feedback strategies. This article concludes with a discussion of the important pedagogical implications.

Investigating the pedagogical practices of EFL writing teachers in Palestinian universities: A cognitive-ecological perspective

<p>Teacher cognition studies are rare in the Palestinian context, as is also true in other contexts where English is taught as a foreign language. This study draws on theories of second language writing and teacher cognition to investigate the interplay between EFL writing teachers’ cognitions and their pedagogical practices. It employs a qualitative design involving multiple case studies to explore how the pedagogical practices of twelve EFL writing teachers working in Palestinian universities are shaped by their cognitions and contextual factors. Data were collected across the nine-month academic year through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, stimulated-recall interviews, and review of documents. A multiple case study research design was used, and constructivist grounded theory informed data analysis. Data were transcribed, coded, and analysed through the development of 12 case reports which were reconstructed into three clusters of cases. The cross-cluster analysis generated a cognitive-ecological model to explain teachers’ choices favouring different pedagogical approaches to teaching EFL writing. Results reveal that teachers’ cognitions about the nature of EFL writing, about teaching and learning writing and about themselves as EFL writing professionals influence their pedagogical practices. The findings also accentuate the role of ecological contexts as a mediating force influencing the interaction between cognitions and practices. These ecological contexts include classroom social and physical contexts, institutional context, broader educational context, and global community discourse. Classroom social and physical contexts were identified and perceived as the most significant barriers to teaching writing, while gaining access to the global community discourse was viewed as the greatest facilitator for adopting recommended practices. Teachers’ cognitions about professional self also determine the weight assigned to the different ecological contexts, thus determining reactions to perceived ecological challenges. This may explain why teachers working in the same context under the same conditions teach differently. Some implications of these findings include the importance of encouraging EFL writing teachers to reflect on pedagogical cognitions and practices relevant to their working contexts as well as the need for introducing recommended models of teaching EFL writing in tertiary institutions. Other theoretical and professional contributions are addressed, and potential for further research is highlighted.</p>

Investigating the pedagogical practices of EFL writing teachers in Palestinian universities: A cognitive-ecological perspective

<p>Teacher cognition studies are rare in the Palestinian context, as is also true in other contexts where English is taught as a foreign language. This study draws on theories of second language writing and teacher cognition to investigate the interplay between EFL writing teachers’ cognitions and their pedagogical practices. It employs a qualitative design involving multiple case studies to explore how the pedagogical practices of twelve EFL writing teachers working in Palestinian universities are shaped by their cognitions and contextual factors. Data were collected across the nine-month academic year through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, stimulated-recall interviews, and review of documents. A multiple case study research design was used, and constructivist grounded theory informed data analysis. Data were transcribed, coded, and analysed through the development of 12 case reports which were reconstructed into three clusters of cases. The cross-cluster analysis generated a cognitive-ecological model to explain teachers’ choices favouring different pedagogical approaches to teaching EFL writing. Results reveal that teachers’ cognitions about the nature of EFL writing, about teaching and learning writing and about themselves as EFL writing professionals influence their pedagogical practices. The findings also accentuate the role of ecological contexts as a mediating force influencing the interaction between cognitions and practices. These ecological contexts include classroom social and physical contexts, institutional context, broader educational context, and global community discourse. Classroom social and physical contexts were identified and perceived as the most significant barriers to teaching writing, while gaining access to the global community discourse was viewed as the greatest facilitator for adopting recommended practices. Teachers’ cognitions about professional self also determine the weight assigned to the different ecological contexts, thus determining reactions to perceived ecological challenges. This may explain why teachers working in the same context under the same conditions teach differently. Some implications of these findings include the importance of encouraging EFL writing teachers to reflect on pedagogical cognitions and practices relevant to their working contexts as well as the need for introducing recommended models of teaching EFL writing in tertiary institutions. Other theoretical and professional contributions are addressed, and potential for further research is highlighted.</p>

How Teacher and Grammarly Feedback Complement One Another in Myanmar EFL Students’ Writing

Providing feedback on students’ writing is considered important by both writing teachers and students. However, contextual constraints including excess workloads and large classes pose major and recurrent challenges for teachers. To lighten the feedback burden, teachers can take advantage of a range of automated feedback tools. This paper investigated how automated feedback can be integrated into traditional teacher feedback by analyzing the focus of teacher and Grammarly feedback through a written feedback analysis of language- and content-related issues. This inquiry considered whether and how successfully students exploited feedback from different sources in their revisions and how the feedback provisions helped improve their writing performance. The study sample of texts was made up of 216 argumentative and narrative essays written by 27 low-intermediate level students at a Myanmar university over a 13-week semester. By analyzing data from the feedback analysis, we found that Grammarly provided feedback on surface-level errors, whereas teacher feedback covered both lower- and higher-level writing concerns, suggesting a potential for integration. The results from the revision analysis and pre- and post-tests suggested that students made effective use of the feedback received, and their writing performance improved according to the assessment criteria. The data were triangulated with self-assessment questionnaires regarding students’ emic perspectives on how useful they found the feedback. The pedagogical implications for integrating automated and teacher feedback are presented.

Innovating teacher feedback with writing activities aimed at raising secondary school students’ awareness of collocation errors

The study examined the types of written corrective feedback given by second language writing teachers on Taiwanese secondary school students’ collocation errors. First, the written corrective feedback that teachers provided on learners’ word choice errors was examined to uncover the types of feedback provided. Then, analysis focused on verb–noun collocations to draw attention to how students had been receiving different types of written corrective feedback from teachers on a single collocation error type. Results showed that some sentences tagged as including word choice errors only contained rule-based errors. Furthermore, for verb-noun collocation errors, teachers chose to provide indirect and direct feedback almost equally at the expense of metalinguistic feedback. Based on the results, we suggested options for second language writing teachers when providing feedback on word choice errors.

The Influence of Metacognitive Scaffolding on Learning Academic Writing Online

The pandemic has caused a big wave of change in the way teaching is done. One of the many areas of concern is that the teaching that was previously done not only face -to-face but also using hands-on; coupled with one-to-one or group by group conferences, is now done online. How can that be done online? In the traditional face-to-face classroom, the writing teacher monitors the working memory of the writers (planning, translating and reviewing) by marking and making comments of the learners’ drafts. The comments and recommendations for changes made by the teachers acted as scaffolds to the learners to guide them to improve on their writing. When online learning hits the classrooms, writing teachers need to incorporate creative language teaching into the online classrooms. This study explores the use of metacognitive scaffolding on learning academic writing online. Learners were taught metacognitive scaffolding during online classes. They responded to the survey. Findings revealed interesting implications for teaching and learning of academic writing online.