The Annotated Bibliography on Feedback in writing

The Annotated Bibliography on Feedback in writing

崔欣宏

教学管理部教师培训中心E PLUS 北外壹佳教育 100089

Introduction

Feedback in second language writing class has always been an important issue that arouses lots of interests from researchers and teachers since the majority of them believe that feedback is regarded as one of the most powerful and effective way of enhancing learners’ writing. Specifically speaking, proper feedback given can scaffold students’ cognitive development, highlight their weakness and strengths, assist them to develop conventions, and provide them with readers’ judgement of a text. In terms of the issue of feedback in ESL and EFL writing, lots of researches have been conducted on various aspects. Some investigated the efficiency of different approaches used for providing feedback; selectively or comprehensively. Some compared teacher feedback, self/peer feedback and automated Essay Scoring feedback, and tried to find out the most effective one. Some did research from L2 learners’ perception on efficacy of teacher feedback or peer feedback, and their emotional response towards different feedback, others studied the use of rubrics in ESL writing and its impact on feedback quality. Based on the papers reviewed, the majority of studies have been done in university-level or graduate-level context. Few studies investigate how L2 learners in secondary school especially in Mainland, China, perceive the use of peer feedback and its influence on their improvement of their writing ability.

The following ten papers, among which are case study, longitudinal textual analysis, qualitative and quantitative researches, have been selected due to their discussion about feedback in ESL writing and its influence on improvement in L2 learners’ writing ability.

Bibliography

1.Cristine McMartin-Miller (2014) how much feedback is enough?;instructor practices and student attitudes toward error treatment in second language writing. Assessing writing,19,24-25.

In this study, qualitative study was used to investigate what percentage of errors instructors

of second language writing marked in student work and students’ attitudes towards selective versus comprehensive error treatment. This study found that L2 learners preferred comprehensive approach in feedback giving because they think it better addresses their errors, but they also maintain positive towards selective approach used mostly by instructors. The finding also revealed the discrepancies in how instructor and students of the same class describe the instructor’s approach. Cristine’s major findings and implication in this paper shed light on the significance of assessing and reinforcing students’ understanding of the reasons why each approach has been used when providing them feedback. Moreover, students learning need and responses towards feedback provided by different approaches should also be well considered.

2.Yao Zheng, Shulin Yu (2018) Student engagement with teacher written feedback I EFL writing : A case study of Chinese lower-proficiency students. Assessing Writing 37, 13-24.

This paper has conducted a case study research on investigating how low-proficiency level students being engaged with teacher written corrective feedback from affective, behavioral and cognitive aspects. This research has found out that learners maintain positive towards teachers’ feedback from affective perspective, but their behavioral engagement did not result in greater language accuracy due to their limited linguistic competence, and from cognitive perspective, the result showed that learners lack of the ability of accurately understanding teachers’ feedback especially when indirect feedback is provided. This study makes an important contribution to pedagogical insight into fully considering students’ current linguistic competence and affective factors and cognitive ability when providing direct or indirect teacher feedback.

3.Omer Hassan Ali Mahfoodh, “I feel disappointed”: EFL university students’ emotional responses towards teacher written feedback, (2017) 53-72 Assessing writing. (2017) 53-72.

In this study, the author examined the relationship between emotional responses of EFL university students towards teacher written feedback and students’ success of revisions. The finding concluded that learners’ emotional responses, positive or negative, towards TWF lead to different results in terms of the improvement of writing ability. Acceptance of feedback lead to higher possibility of successful revision. Rejection of feedback result in high percentage of not revised actions. Positive feedback helps build confidence while negative feedback prevents students from being improved. This study has shown that students’ emotional response is also an important factor that determines whether learners’ writing ability can be improved or not. In addition, this study makes teachers and researchers increase the awareness of the significance of balancing criticism and praise when providing teacher feedback.

4.Estela Ene, Virginia Kosobucki, Rubrics and corrective feedback in ESL writing: A longitudinal case study of an L2 Writer. Assessing Writing 30(2016) 3-20

This longitudinal case study conducted in a context where rubrics are institutionally mandated, the authors tried to explore the relationship between corrective feedback and rubrics and if corrective feedback is still necessary when form-focused feedback is provided. The paper has concluded that, though learners hold positive attitude towards use of rubrics, they highly value personalized comments given by teachers, which is especially true for low-proficiency level students who benefit most from direct and explicit teacher feedback. This paper has made an important contribution to writing pedagogy in terms of the focus of teacher written feedback. Firstly, feedback should not only constraint on form but more on content and organization. Secondly, explicit teacher explanation of teacher feedback is greatly in need in order to enhance students’ better understanding and use of teachers’ feedback.

5.Weiqiang Wang, Students’ perceptions of rubric-referenced peer feedback on EFL writing: A longitudinal inquiry. Assessing Writing19(2014)80-96

In this study, the researcher investigated how students’ perceptions of peer feedback on their EFL writing change over time, the factors affecting their perceived usefulness of peer feedback for draft revision, and their opinions about use of a rubric in the peer feedback practice. The major findings have shown that the usefulness of peer feedback for improving their EFL writing diminished over time. It also revealed that students’ topical knowledge

about a certain issue, their limited linguistic competence, their attitudes towards peer feedback practice and their concerns of interpersonal relationship are the main factors that contribute to the efficacy of peer feedback. Future research could conduct in specific classroom context by using case study or ethnographical research that focuses on students’ perceptions and attitudes regarding peer feedback.

6.Feedback in Writing: Issues and challenge, Assessing Writing 19(2014)1-5

This literature review paper briefly summarized the researchers conducted in recent years in terms of feedback writing. It pointed out more research context should focus on naturalistic classroom settings. In addition, the majority of empirical studies carried out in L1 and ESL English-dominant countries, few has been conducted in other contexts such as secondary schools. Finally, more research can also investigate in how Automated Writing feedback can assist teachers in giving feedback.

7.Ivan Chong, Hw students’ ability levels influence the relevance and accuracy of their feedback to peers: A case study. Assessing Writing 31(2017) 13-23.

In this study, the researcher explored how students’ English proficiency influences the relevance and accuracy of their feedback to peers. The finding showed that there is a positive relationship between students’ writing abilities and the relevance and accuracy of their written feedback. This research calls for a need of explicit classroom pre-writing instruction that stresses the learning goals in order to strengthen their performance in levels of content development and linguistic accuracy; a pision of labor based on students’ performance on their first draft can better facilitate each learner’s weakness; finally, assessment rubrics for peer assessment should be designed in a way that caters to the needs of students.

8.Shulin Yu, Guangwei Hu, understanding university students’ peer feedback practices in EFL writing: Insights from a case study. Assessing Writing 33(2017)25-35

In this case study, the researcher examined how two students respond to peer writing and the factors influencing their feedback practices. The finding indicated that peer feedback practices were situated in their own distinct sociocultural context and are deeply affected by various factors such as beliefs and values, motives and goals, previous learning and feedback experience, feedback training and assessment culture. This paper contributes new insights by relating peer feedback practices to students’ sociocultural context and providing contextualized interpretation of their unique approaches.

9.Roswita Dressler, Man-Wai Chu, Katie Crossman, Brianna Hilman, Quantity and quality of uptake: Examining surface and meaning-level feedback provided by peers and an instructor in a graduate research course. Assessing Writing 39(2019)14-24 This study conducted in an online graduate level context examined the quantity and quality of uptake of surface-level and meaning-level feedback provided by peers and an instructor on writing assignments. The finding showed that students find peer and instructor feedback both valuable and significant though most of the peer feedback only focused on surface- level feedback. Meanwhile, it also found that surface-level feedback was taken in greater quantity and quality than meaning-level feedback. This research has drawn us great attention to strong need of explicit training in giving and receiving feedback from peers and instructors in order to improve the quantity and quality of feedback uptake.

10.Semire Dikli, Susan Bkeyle, Automated Essay Scoring feedback for second language

writers: How does it compare to instructor feedback? Assessing Writing 22(2014)1- 17

In this study, these two researchers explored the use of the AES system Criterion in an EAP classroom and compared automated feedback to instructor feedback in order to better understand the affordances and limitations of AES feedback for second language writers. The finding showed that students have positive attitudes toward AES feedback and treat it as a valuable resource but complementary and supportive tool compared with the major role that instructor feedback plays. This paper has an important contribution to the pedagogical implication, which make both instructors and learners fully aware of the limitation of AES and objectively view the use and value of AES in second language writing class.

Conclusion

The above ten academic papers have analyzed providing feedback in second language writing from different perspectives, revealing various research findings and implications. Weiqiang Wang and Ivan Chong both discussed students’ limited linguistic and topical knowledge influence the quality of peer feedback provided, and both mentioned the necessity of peer feedback training and pre-writing brainstorming in order to enhance learners’ performance on quality peer feedback giving.

With regard to the rubric use of peer and teacher feedback, Weiqiang Wang and Estela Ene, Virginia Kosobucki both discussed the rubric –reference or rubric use of peer or corrective feedback. The finding both revealed the indispensable role rubrics plays in assisting and enhancing learners’ writing ability, but in Estela Ene and Virginia Kosobucki paper, it indicated that personalized instructor feedback should be more emphasized along with the use of rubrics as supplementary tool.

in terms of the corrective teacher feedback, Cristine, Omer, Ali and Yao Zheng have all found out in their research that students maintain positive attitude towards teacher feedback and highly value teacher positive and comprehensive comments. Meanwhile, criticism and negative comments should be given carefully since they may discourage learners and prevent them from improvement.

Among all these papers, the majority of the studies were conducted either in English-medium university like US, Singapore, or graduate-level course. The participants were all upper- intermediate or advanced students. No studies presented here focuses on how feedback is conducted and learners’ perception of use of peer feedback in secondary school context, especially in mainland, China, though one paper did research on peer feedback given by low- proficiency students, but it was done in Hong Kong. Under the influence on traditional education conventions, teacher-dominant classroom management has been deeply rooted in Chinese learners’ learning conventions, which is especially true for low-proficiency level students. Investigating how secondary school low-proficiency level learners perceive efficacy of peer feedback in ESL writing classroom is a research problem worthy future exploring.