Investigating the Impact of Formative Feedback on Writing Skills of English Language Learners at Undergraduate Level in South Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

In Pakistan English language is taught from primary to the level of graduation as compulsory subject. A lot of efforts have been made by government to improve teaching of English as foreign language in Pakistan in order to achieve the proficiency, but unfortunately, it has been reported that the competency level of the students is not up to the mark. Such a deteriorating situation of competency majorly has been observed in writing skill of the students. Formative feedback is considered as the powerful tool which enhances the performance of the students in the process of learning and production skills i.e. writing and speaking. The present study is aimed to trace out the impact of formative feedback on the writing skill of English language learners at undergraduate level in South Punjab, Pakistan. The data for the present study has been collected through mixed method approach. Pre- Test, Post-Test, Open ended questionnaire and follow up interviews were used as tools of data collection. There were two randomly selected groups of BS English students, semester 7th studying at Bahadur Sub Campus Layyah, Bahauddin Zakaria University Multan, Pakistan. There were 25 students in each group i.e. controlled and experimental. The writing skills of the experimental group were administered through formative feedback for four months. The analyzed data reveals that formative feedback has significant impact on improving writing skills and confidence level of the students. It is suggested that teachers should adopt formative feedback in their classrooms to make their teaching more effective, productive, creative and interactive.