Investigating EFL Students’ Feedback-Handling Strategies in Argumentative Essay Writing

Abstract

Teachers of writing spend considerable time and effort providing students with feedback, hoping that this will help reduce the number of students' mistakes and improve their writing performance. However, they can feel quite disappointed when they realize that their feedback is ignored or does not result in better drafts especially in process writing tasks.

Studies done in the field of response to students' writing ( Diab, 2005; Ferris, 1995; Leki, 1991; and Cohen,1987) )demonstrated the importance of feedback for writing in an academic context and the mismatch between teachers' expectations of feedback and students' reaction to it.

This study investigates how second year university students of English react to teacher written feedback (TWF),what problems they face dealing with it and what strategies they use to handle it and solve the problems it poses. Three research instruments were utilized to collect data from a sample of six students: questionnaires, content analysis of students' drafts and interviews.

The analysis of the results revealed that all six students have a positive attitude to TWF. They found it motivating and tried to take it into consideration whenever they revised their drafts because it seemed to help them improve their writing. However, they all faced problems dealing with illegible teacher's handwriting and unclear comments and symbols. Finally, even when they managed to decode teacher's feedback correctly, many of them did not know how to use this feedback to improve their second and final drafts.

The findings of this study showed that the subjects used a number of feedback handling strategies. The latter were classified into three main categories:

" Meta-cognitive strategies: making a mental note, relating TWF to previous knowledge about language, and deciding on which mistakes to correct and which to ignore. " Cognitive strategies: reading TWF several times, using a dictionary/grammar book, and replacing the wrong word/verb by a synonym. " Social-affective strategies: asking for the teacher's help or a peer/friend help.

The present study emphasizes that students need to be trained on how to use TWF effectively when writing the second drafts of their essays. In addition, they should be actively engaged in feedback provision. Furthermore teachers should take into account students' needs and preferences, negotiate feedback with them in terms of purpose, the way it is presented and how it can best be used to improve their writing.