Postsecondary L2 writing teachers’ use and perceptions of Grammarly as a complement to their feedback

Abstract

Although it has been suggested that automated writing evaluation (AWE) can liberate teachers’ time to focus more on higher-order concerns as it can take care of lower-order concerns, AWE’s impact on teachers’ feedback practice is underexplored. Additionally, scant literature exists on teachers’ perception of AWE when they use it to complement their feedback. This study explored how Grammarly shaped postsecondary L2 writing teachers’ feedback when it was used to complement teacher feedback as well as teachers’ perceptions of the tool. To understand Grammarly’s impact, teachers’ comments on 10 essays were analyzed. The teachers then had a semi-structured interview aimed at exploring their perceptions of Grammarly. The findings showed that teachers provided feedback both on global and local aspects of writing despite using Grammarly as a complement, and there was no division of labor such as that a teacher takes care of higher-order and Grammarly takes care of lower-order concerns. The findings also revealed factors that impacted teachers’ feedback, including teachers’ use of Grammarly reports, their attitudes toward automated feedback, as well as their beliefs about feedback and course objectives. Overall, of the six teachers, four were positive about Grammarly, while two were skeptical. The study provides implications on how to use Grammarly meaningfully as a complement to teacher feedback.

Partnering with Automatic Writing Evaluation

“…She also elaborates that the AWE feedback serves as a diagnostic assessment to measure her students' ability and problems in writing. The same strategy is applied by teachers in another classroom context where teachers positively provide feedback to avoid students being discouraged following negative feedback generated by the AWE (Koltovskaia, 2022). Indeed, the participant worries about the discouraging effect on the students in the long run, so she follows up on the student's work and interacts with the students about their mistakes or revisions.…”

“…Studies found that AWE reduced teachers' workload by providing lower-level writing skills, such as spelling and grammar J.Li, Ling & Hegelheimer 2015). Contrarily, teachers in another context utilize AWE as supplementary feedback (Koltovskaia, 2022). Indeed, despite the many significant positive effects of AWE implementation towards different aspects of students' writing, it is important to note that feedback interacts with factors, such as learners' language proficiency, instructor's pedagogical approach as well and the socio-cultural contexts of language learning.…”

Scrutinizing the Impacts of Grammarly Application on Students’ Writing Performance and Perception

“…This study suggested further inquiries regarding the enduring impacts of AWE tools, Other Studies on teachers' perspectives and the use of AWE technologies such as Grammarly uncover a complex perspective. There exists a divergence of opinions among educators on the efficacy of automated feedback in addressing lower-order writing difficulties, so affording them more time to focus on higher-order features (Koltovskaia, 2023). Research indicates that educators persist in delivering thorough criticism that includes both global and local writing elements, irrespective of the assistance Grammarly provides.…”

Let’s Get Digital: ICT Training Needs in Pre-Service Language Teaching

“…Development and knowledge of linguistic competence tools have also been the focus of teacher professional development. Koltovskaia's [20] investigation on in-service and pre-service teachers' use of Grammarly as a complement to teacher feedback found that this type of application, while it had limitations and still required teacher input, did provide useful feedback and helped identify the most frequent errors. Rets, Rienties, and Lewis [21] conducted a six week study on the use of virtual exchanges for intercultural effectiveness (IE) between pre-service teachers from Portugal and Brazil and found that the experience provided IE gains for 70% of participants.…”