Abstract
EFL Postgraduate Students’ Perspectives towards Teachers’ Feedback on L2 Writing
The effectiveness of written corrective feedback in improving students’ writing proficiency has been widely studied recently. However, the students’ perspectives towards the feedback they receive have been considered by only few studies. Therefore, the perspectives towards the coded corrective feedback were explored in the current study. The study adopted a qualitative approach employing semi-structured interviews with ten postgraduate students studying Intensive English Course at Universiti Utara Malaysia. The students were selected purposefully and were divided based on their proficiency levels. They received two types of feedback as Direct and Indirect Coded Feedback on two writing tasks. After that, they were interviewed individually. The data were analysed manually by making thematic analyses using open and axial coding techniques. The findings revealed that all the participants need Corrective Feedback on a regular basis. They stated that the direct feedback is clear and an easy way of providing feedback and shows their teachers’ interest in correcting their mistakes. On the other hand, they illustrated that the direct corrective feedback might have negative psychological effects on them. As for the indirect coded feedback, the participants stated that it increases their self-confidence as independent learners. In addition, they revealed that it is both time and effort-consuming for the learners. These findings could have pedagogical implications by helping teachers realize the most effective type of corrective feedback.
Keywords
L2 Writing, EFL Students, Corrective Feedback, Qualitative Approach
