A Case Study of Teacher Feedback on Thai University Students’ Essay Writing

Abstract

The effectiveness of written feedback on writing is influenced by various variables, including students' proficiency levels, prior learning experiences, expectations and educational contexts. Although Thai students are reported to have serious problems in English writing, which are partly caused by their culturally-based English learning styles, few studies have been conducted to find out how teachers assist them through their feedback. This study thus reports on the practice of teacher feedback in terms of its forms, locations, types and purposes with a consideration of several influential factors in an essay writing class at a university in Thailand. Furthermore, the levels of the students' reactions to the teacher feedback, the effects of their revisions and their revision strategies were also examined. To learn about these students' opinions on the effectiveness of the feedback strategies employed, a survey with the whole class and a focus-group interview were also conducted at the end of the course. The results showed the students' active engagement in responding to the teacher feedback, and this tends to assert the crucial roles of teachers' knowledge of students' learning experiences, English proficiency levels, feedback preferences and classroom settings on the success of written corrective feedback. Though the findings might not be generalized in other EFL settings, they show how in-service teachers adjust feedback strategies in their actual teaching situations to prepare EFL students to become self-regulating writers.

Does Conferencing Feedback Improve Non-English Majors’ Paragraph-Writing? A Case Study in Vietnam

“…Feedback is considered a source of input that encourages writers to improve their written work and develop their writing skills (Hyland & Hyland, 2001). Therefore, feedback plays a crucial role in students' revision activities, and it contributes to the quality of their subsequent writings (Freedman, 1985;Hyland & Hyland, 2001;Nguyen, 2019).…”

“…And when it comes to language skills, writing is widely deemed the most challenging to the learner because this complex skill requires the writer to undergo proper training and regular writing practice to be able to use suitable grammatical structures, lexical items, written conventions, and mechanical techniques. Nguyen (2019) contended, "These challenges make writing one of the most difficult skills to develop and create an overreliance on the teacher for all kinds of corrections and guidance" (p.121). Over the past years, upon working at a local college (located in Can Tho City, Vietnam), the researcher of the current study had access to non-English majored students' academic data and has witnessed students' poor writing performance.…”

Selection of Research Paradigms in English Language Teaching: Personal Reflections and Future Directions

“…One more similar research design to assist my Thai students is the modification of my feedback strategies in an essay-writing class (Nguyen, 2019a). Feedback was given with a consideration of several influential factors (students' learning experiences, English proficiency levels, feedback preferences and classroom settings).…”

Problemas de escritura identificados en la producción de ensayos de estudiantes de tres carreras de Pedagogía

“…Diversas investigaciones han evidenciado las dificultades y carencias que poseen los estudiantes universitarios para producir textos generales y académicos (PINETEH, 2014;HERMOSILLO y VERDÍN, 2019; MEZA, CASTELLÓN y GLADIC, 2021; entre muchos otros). De hecho, se ha afirmado que, en educación superior, la escritura es una de las habilidades más difíciles de desarrollar (NGUYEN, 2019).…”

“…Con el propósito de entregarles mayor cantidad de herramientas para que puedan enfrentar más exitosamente la producción de textos en contextos académicos, en los últimos años, las instituciones de educación superior en Chile han integrado sistemática y transversalmente cursos En este marco, diversas investigaciones se han interesado por reconocer cuáles son los principales problemas que presentan los textos producidos por estudiantes durante su formación de pregrado. Así, contamos, por ejemplo, con investigaciones que han reportado los problemas que presentan los estudiantes en educación superior toda vez que se enfrentan a la escritura en una segunda lengua (KHUWAILEH y SHOUMALI, 2000;AL FADDA, 2012;HUANG y JUN ZHANG, 2020;NGUYEN, 2019). En el contexto chileno, se han reportado los errores más frecuentes que cometen los estudiantes en ámbitos disciplinares y géneros específicos como el Informe Académico en Enfermería (ARECHABALA et al, 2011) y los géneros profesionales con fines académicos en Derecho y Medicina (MEZA, CASTELLÓN y GLADIC, 2021).…”