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Abstract m This study aims to explore students' attitudes toward teacher feedback.
The study used a triangulation of participants and methods in which the practice of
feedback was seen from the perspectives of students and teachers collected from the
quantitative data (questionnaires) and qualitative data (open-ended items in question-
naires and interviews). A total of 100 students participated in filling in the question-
naires and 21 of them were interviewed using a semi-structured format. In addition,
there were 20 teachers who completed the questionnaires and 10 of them were inter-
viewed using the same semi-structured format. The findings show that generally
teachers and students have a marked preference for teacher feedback. The high pref-
erence for teacher feedback was mainly the result ofthe respondents' positive atti-
tudes towards teacher feedback. Interestingly, student preferences for teacher feedback
also stemmed from their awareness that teachers control grades. The data collected
from the questionnaires and interviews indicated that students preferred teacher
feedback that was specific since this kind of feedback would facilitate students in the
revision process. Students also show a high preference for feedback which focused
on language. Compared to feedback on content, feedback on form was considered to
be more helpful. Students often complained that teacher feedback on content tended
to be general and sometimes, contradictory to student ideas. Moreover, the interview
data illustrated that teacher feedback contributed greatly to students' emotional states
particularly their motivation and attitudes towards writing.
Introduction
Writing has always been considered one ofthe four important skills con-
tributing to students' language leaming. This is particularly so because in
almost every course, there is a writing element of some kind. Despite the
presence of writing in almost every element ofthe language course and the
abundant amount of time students spend on writing, many students have
expressed their concems about not being able to do it well. There have
been many attempts to help students to improve their writing quality and
increase their motivation for writing tasks. One important attempt is by
providing feedback. In fact, Coffin et a/. (2003) maintain that 'the provi-
sion of feedback on students' writing is a central pedagogic practice'
{Coffin etal. 2003: 102).
Most writing courses in the English Department at Satya Wacana
Christian University (Writing 2 until Writing 4 courses) allocate time for
providing feedback. The writing classes mostly follow somewhat the same
format: students are given a chance to write the first draft and then bring it
to the class. Feedback is usually given on the first draft by the class
teacher and/or the peers. Afterwards, students revise the drafts based on
the input they have received from the teacher and/or their peers.
It needs to be noted that although feedback can come from the class
teacher and the student's peers, teacher feedback continues to be consid-
ered of utmost importance. This can be seen from the time allocated for
the teacher-student conferencing outside the classroom, which often takes
twice as long as the scheduled class hours.
Not only do the teachers' themselves consider teacher feedback as the
most itnportant, but so do the students. This is based on my personal
experience when I was teaching Writing 4 in the English Department at
Satya Wacana Christian University for three trimesters.' In every trimes-
ter, there was one writing assignment where the feedback only came from
their classmates and not from tne. At that time I asked the students to give
comments and correction on their friends' drafts. Interestingly, students
often came to me and asked if their friends' corrections and cotnments
were correct. This indicates that the students themselves think teacher
feedback is more authoritative.
Regardless ofthe time and effort spent in giving feedback, many teach-
ers in the English Department have complained that students' writing did
not improve and students keep on repeating the same mistakes. This tnakes
me wonder if students do get any benefit frotn feedback. There seems to
be a mismatch between the students' and the teacher's perception in the
use of feedback. On the one hand, the teacher feels that the students have
not attended to the feedback optimally. Most teachers assumed that if the
students attended to the teacher feedback, their writing would be 'perfect'.
On tbe other hand, the students feel that they have responded to the
40
Regional Language Centre Joumal 38.1
feedback accordingly. This mismatch is the central reason that this topic of
this study was selected.
The Study
Methodologically the study employed a combination of quantitative and
qualitative approaches. The respondents to the questionnaire study com-
prise 100 students and 30 teachers. The student respondents were selected
based on those who have taken all the writing courses in the department.
Students who have completed all the writing courses, were considered to
have experienced a wide variety of teacher feedback. Participants in the
interviews included 21 students and 10 teachers. Both student and teacher
participants were asked approximately identical questions in order to com-
pare their views and beliefs regarding teacher feedback. The interviews
were conducted to find out specific information on the teacher and student
attitudes and preferences towards the practices of giving and receiving
feedback. In addition, the interview was useful as a cross-reference and to
clarify the responses obtained from the questionnaire.
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
5%
0% 0% 0% 0% . ,
0%
No Importance Lrttfe Irr^iortance Neutral Inportanl Very rrportant
Teachers Students
41
Teacher and Student Attitudes toward Teacher Feedhack
The data iti Figure 1 illustrate that a high majority of teachers and students
believed that teacher feedback was either 'very important' and "impor-
tant'. The teacher questionnaires indicated that 95% of teachers believed
that teacher feedback is 'important' (55%) and 'very important' (40%).
Similarly, the data from the student questionnaires indicate that 93% of
the students believed that teacher feedback was either 'important' (49%)
or 'very important' (44%).
The interview data also lean towards the importance of teacher
feedback. All ofthe students and teachers interviewed agreed that teacher
feedback, to some extent, was very important in improving student writ-
ings. The following were some reasons mentioned by the participants for
favouring teacher feedback:
Similar to SI 10, she also has friends who ofteti helped her in her
writing. This is because teacher feedback made her felt dictated to and/or
patronized by the teachers.
(c) The cultural belief that teachers are the source of knowledge
The third reason for preferring teacher feedback, as stated by several
students, is the belief about teachers being the source of knowledge. TI 6
and SI 6 offer a critical reason for this. They thought the reason for the
assumption that teachers are knowledgeable was mostly cultural. As SI 6
noted during the interview session:
.. .since childhood, we were used to be guided by our teachers.. .we tend
to follow them.. .do whatever they say.. .including following the feed-
back they gave. We needed teacher feedback because we were confused
if the teacher did not give feedback. We didn't know where to go. So
since we were a child, we were conditioned to just follow. It was cul-
tural... (SI 6, my translation).
...because the teacher gave us the grade so we played safe (SQ 8).
Usually what the teacher said was the correct one and the grade for
writing was very subjective (depended very much on each individual
teacher) so it was very important to know what the teacher wants from
our writing. Forme, their feedback is what they want. To get an A, just
follow what they want (SQ 80).
100%
80%
60%
39%
40%
25%
20%
3% 3% 1%
1 1
0%
For SI 18. teachers gave 'too much feedback' if their feedback was
more than the students' writing. In fact, she has experienced this when
joining one of the earlier writing classes. This practice made her feel 'help-
less', 'disappointed', 'sad' and "discouraged'. Similar feelings and experi-
ences were felt by SI 17 and S! 19.
For SI 16, teachers gave "too much feedback' when they crossed out
almost every word and/or the whole paragraph in a piece of writing.
Although she realized that her writing may need fixing, sbe thought
teachers should try not to cross everything or even most of the parts in
student writing As inferred from Bandura (1986), such practice might
lower student self-efficacy."* Bandura (1986) suggests that when teacher
feedback leads to student lower self-efficacy, students would not make
optimal use of the feedback.
She was aware that general comments may not work well with poor
students as with diligent students. Based on her experiences, only diligent
students revised their writing despite the general feedback their teachers
gave them. They even revised parts of their writing not specifically indi-
cated by teacher feedback.
Wiltse (2000) might provide a useful explanation for this. He stated
that revising entails taking a risk. Thus, many students wiil not take the
risk of changing anything not commented on by the teacher even if they
sense that revision is needed. The fact that revision entails risk is very
much felt by SQ 84:
Sometimes teachers asked me to add more information but they did not
tell me what the information should be. As a result, in the revision, it
became another mistake that should be revised in later drafts (SQ 84).
She noted that if the teacher feedback was not explicit, the feedback
would become 'another mistake' that she should revise in later drafts.
Another student, SI 3, confessed that she did not revise the writing that her
teacher did not code for fear of making a new error. With regard to this,
Wiltse (2000) further suggests the need for classroom activities to be
designed to help students overcome their apprehension about revising.
Student preference of specific teacher feedback is realized by TI 8. As
she expressed during the interview session:
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Regional Language Centre Journal 38.1
From her remarks it shows that while giving specific feedback is effec-
tive and preferable, it is very time consuming. In the context of the study,
the writing class consisted of 20-25 students. In each writing class, stu-
dents are normally expected to write three kinds of writing products and
for one writing product, students need to write, at least, a first draft and a
final draft.
By taking into account the time constraints in providing specific feed-
back. TI 6 shared her experience of how to overcome this dilemma. As she
described her feedback strategy:
So in the last writing class. I gave a specific feedback to some of the
students' work. 1 noticed students learn from mistakes. I mean I wrote
the feedback using an AVA showing the parts that were wrong in
students' writing. I also pointed out the parts that were already correct
using an OHP transparency so they [the students] can really see why it
was wrong and how to correct them. So students can develop a skill on
how to revise their writing. Apparently they learn a lot and I felt
students improve a lot. So, all their grades were good.
This finding is in line with Robb. Ross and Shortreed (1986 cited in
Reesor 2002) study. They found that the extent to which students can
make use of feedback is largely related to a learner's level of L2 acquisi-
tion. Thus, Reesor (2002) concludes that the identification of some gram-
matical errors that correspond with student current acquisition level may
have a positive eftect on student writing, but the identification of errors
beyond the student's current acquisition level will not. Similar suggestions
were put forward by Williams (1997) and Ryoo (2004).
Therefore, teachers should be careful not to concentrate too heavily on
errors in form beyond student present acquisition level. If teachers re-
sponded to errors at a level beyond a learner's level of acquisition, they
may risk not only wasting much of their own time, but also confusing
students. Consequently, the feedback is not effective since students cannot
make optimal use of it.
Conclusion
Similar to the teachers, the data from the questionnaire and interview
illustrate that the majority of students strongly believed that teaeher feed-
back is of utmost importance to improve students' writing. This is because
many times, though not always, teachers are considered to be more com-
petent in terms of language and knowledge. In addition, they are believed
to be more experienced in writing and providing feedback, the source of
knowledge and the ones who control grades. Because of this strong belief,
students considered teacher feedback as more "qualified', 'experienced'
'accurate', 'valid', 'reUable' and 'trustworthy'. Yet, it is important to point
out that not all students agree with this, particularly those who have experi-
enced being given inappropriate teacher feedback. With regard to stu-
dents' emotional states, the data from the questionnaire indicates that the
majority of the students felt 'excited' when receiving teacher feedback.
However, the interview data provide a different result. Of the 30 students
interviewed, 28 (93%) admitted that the amount of teacher feedback
largely influenced their feelings. While too much feedback would make
the students depressed, little feedback was considered more motivating, as
for the students, it indicated fewer mistakes.
REFERENCES
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2003 Teaching Academic Writing: A Toolkit for Higher Education (New York:
Routledge).
Cutting, J.
2001 Pragmatics and Discourse: A Resource Book for Students (London:
Routiedge).
Reesor. M.
2002 'Issues in Written Teacher Feedback: A Critical Review', The English
Teacher 5{3): 242-55.
Robb, T., S. Ross, and i. Shortreed
1986 'Salience of Feedback on Error and its Effect on EFL Writing Quality',
TESOl Quarterly 20: 83-95.
Ryoo, Mi-Lim
2004 'The Effects of Teacher Feedback on EFL Students' Writing in a Korean
VnWcrs'ny Class', The Journal of ASIA TEFL 1(1): 115-30.
52
Regional Language Centre Journal 38.1
Thompson, T.
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NOTES