Exploring University Students' Preferences towards Written Corrective Feedback in EFL Context in Libya

Abstract

This study was designed to explore Libyan EFL students' written corrective feedback preferences regarding their gender to explore the relationship between their gender and their preferences. The data were collected by applying a quantitative method by using a questionnaire. The main objective of this study was to investigate students' preferences on six types of Written Corrective Feedback and investigate which of these types they preferred the most. The researcher administered the questionnaire to a sample of 35 EFL students (16 males and 19 females) studying English (EFL) at Azzaytuna University in Libya. The data were analyzed to reveal the frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation values. Paired T-test samples were used to examine the gender differences regarding the types of feedback preferences. These results revealed that students had high preferences towards writing corrective feedback in all types. The results also revealed that there were no statistically significant differences between males and females related to their choices of corrective feedback types. In addition, the results demonstrated that form feedback is the most preferred type among students, followed by unfocused feedback, while content feedback is considered as the least preferable type. This study can be regarded as one of the aspects that may contribute to the improvement in the field of education, as it attempts to explore the characteristic and kinds of error feedback strategies which may promote EFL students at universities and colleges in Libya.

Exploring Learners’ and Teachers’ Preferences Regarding Written Corrective Feedback Types in Improving Learners’ Writing Skill

“…We explored that learners also like when their teacher corrects all their errors; they expect unfocused feedback on their writing. The findings correspond with the research of (Radecki& Swales, 1988;Enginarlar, 1993;Jahbel, Latief, Cahyono, & Abdalla, 2020). The findings of this study showed that learners favored the unfocused feedback i.e., they like when all the errors corrected, for unfocused feedback contributes to learning.…”

“…The findings of this study showed that learners favored the unfocused feedback i.e., they like when all the errors corrected, for unfocused feedback contributes to learning. This finding is similar to (Leki, 1991;Cohen, 1987;Cumming, 1995;Ferris, 1995;Hyland, 1998;Lee, 2004;Jahbel, et al,2020). There is no correlation in this study between teachers' and learners' preferences regarding written feedback types.…”