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

Abstract

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.

A genre-based approach in the secondary school English writing class: Voices from student-teachers in the teaching practicum

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Exploring classroom-based assessment for young EFL learners in the Chinese context: Teachers’ beliefs and practices

“…A Chinese saying, ‘being a teacher for only 1 day entitles one to lifelong respect from the student that befits his/her father’ (yiri weishi zhongshen weifu), expresses this hierarchical teacher-student relationship. Having been influenced by this culture throughout their own student life, Chinese EFL teachers are likely to develop firm beliefs regarding the teacher and student roles ( Cheng et al, 2021 ; Sun and Zhang, 2021 ; Zhang and Sun, 2022 ). As such, when conducting assessment, teachers tend to still take a dominant role in assessment and monitoring students’ learning despite their beliefs about the beneficial impact of student-involving assessments.…”

Computer or Human: A Comparative Study of Automated Evaluation Scoring and instructors’ feedback on Chinese College Students’ English Writing

“…The participants pointed out the instructor's feedback contained grammar corrections but focused more on the organization of arguments. Researchers found that Chinese teachers showed a stronger focus on correcting the use of grammar and vocabulary (Cheng et al, 2021). However, researchers tend to agree that the strategy and in uence of teacher feedback are context speci c.…”