Saudi EFL Learners’ Preferences of the Corrective Feedback on Written Assignment

Abstract

The aim of the current study is to investigate the Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ preferences for corrective feedback on written assignments. This mixed-method study used a closed-ended Likert scale questionnaire that was adopted and adapted to suit the participants under investigation. Additionally, an open-ended question was used to gain more insight. Both instruments were completed by 114 Saudi female EFL learners whose ages ranged from 12 to 13 years old and who were studying in the seventh grade at a private school in Jeddah. The instruments were given to the learners after 6 weeks of implementing three different types of feedback on written assignments. The quantitative part of the study was descriptively analysed using SPSS to find the learners’ preferences in corrective feedback, and a one-way ANOVA was used to find the differences between learners’ preferences among groups. The qualitative part of the study was thematically categorised and manually analysed using Excel. The findings revealed that the learners’ preferences did not vary according to the type of corrective feedback. However, the vast majority of learners preferred having constructive feedback on how to correct their mistakes. Additionally, learners preferred the use of electronic devices to receive corrective feedback. This study suggests that teachers consider learners’ preferences on corrective feedback so that they can incorporate these into their teaching plans.

Attitudes of Saudi EFL Female Students Towards Current Teacher Feedback Practices

“…Additionally, the findings indicated that students preferred teacher feedback focusing on all aspects of writing, such as grammar, structure, meaning, spelling, and punctuation. Indeed, similar findings have been reported by several previous studies at the tertiary level (e.g., Alharbi, 2016;Alshahrani & Storch, 2014;Hamouda, 2011) and the intermediate school level (e.g., Qutob & Madini, 2020).…”

“…assess the effectiveness of teacher feedback. Indeed, these studies generally relate to three main categories: studies investigating the effectiveness of teacher feedback (e.g., Biber, Nekrasova, & Horn, 2011;Ellis et al, 2008;Hubais & Dumaning, 2014;Rastgou, 2016;Wei & Cao, 2020), studies investigating the efficacy of different types of teacher feedback (e.g., Bitchener & Knoch, 2009;Chandler, 2003;Hosseiny, 2014;Storch & Wigglesworth, 2010), and studies exploring students' perceptions and attitudes towards teacher feedback (e.g., Al-Sawalha, 2016;Chen et al, 2016;Hamouda, 2011;Qutob & Madini, 2020;Zacharias, 2007). These studies generally reported that teacher feedback is useful and that students' value and use teachers' feedback.…”

“…Moreover, a longitudinal study conducted by Alharbi (2016) explored the perceptions of teacher feedback of 50 male, Saudi, EFL students, and found that the students had a positive attitude towards teacher written feedback and that they perceived the teacher comments to be useful for their overall writing development. A recent mixed-method study by Qutob and Madini (2020) explored the preferences for teacher feedback on written tasks of 114 female Saudi EFL learners, who were aged 12 to 13 years and were studying in the seventh grade at a private intermediate school. The findings of this study showed that students preferred receiving constructive and detailed feedback on their written tasks.…”

“…In summary, previous research has shown that teacher written feedback can lead to improvements in the writing of L2 learners and that the students' attitudes towards teacher feedback are notably positive. However, the studies conducted in Saudi Arabia predominantly focused on male students only (e.g., Alharbi, 2016;Hamouda, 2011;Alshahrani & Storch, 2014), or were conducted with female students but in intermediate schools (e.g., Qutob & Madini, 2020). To the best knowledge of the researcher, no studies have been conducted to investigate the attitudes of tertiary-level female students towards the current practices of teacher feedback, as well as the challenges and problems they encounter when receiving teacher feedback.…”

Written Corrective Feedback in Online Writing Classrooms: EFL Students’ Perceptions and Preferences

“…In a Saudi context, many studies have investigated Saudi students' perceptions of different types of WCF (Aseeri, 2019;Hamouda, 2011;Mustafa, 2012;Qutob & Madini, 2020). A quantitative study was conducted by Aseeri (2019) to investigate Saudi teachers' and students' attitudes toward the most common techniques used in receiving feedback in L2 writing classrooms such as direct and indirect feedback.…”