The effect of written and oral teacher feedback on pre-intermediate student revisions in a process-oriented EFL writing class

Abstract

This study focuses on pre-intermediate student revisions in a process-oriented English as a Foreign Language (EFL) class and investigates the effect of written and oral teacher feedback. Specifically, the research questions are: (I ) Does written and oral teacher feedback have an impact on pre-intermediate student revisions in a process-oriented EFL writing class? If so, to what extent? (2) Does writing multiple drafts in a process-oriented writing class have an impact on the overall writing quality? If so, to what extent? (3) Does teacher feedback in a process-oriented EFL writing class have an impact on students' opitlions about writing? If so, what are students' perceptions of the type and amount of teacher feedback they received between first and final drafts? How much attention did they pay to each type of teacher feedback? The teacher-researcher investigated the possible effects of teacher feedback on student revisions d~iring the drafting process of one single writing topic. 16 students produced three clrafts each: first and second drafts plus a final draft. The teacher's written feedback procedures across draft one ancl draft two involved indirect-coded feedback for form-focused errors and teacher commentary for meaning-focused errors. Her oral feedback was given on across draft two and draft three in one-to-one writing conferences held with individual students. The students produced their second drafts on the basis of written teacher feeclback and their final drafts on the basis of writing conference input. The researcher analysed 48 essays in detail: counting grammatical errors, evaluating content revisions, and categorizing the types of errors. As a result of written feedback, all students significantly improved their grammatical accuracy and in terms of content the students were able to make positive minimal and substantive revisions to some extent. The revisions in surface and content changes accounted for the majority of therevision. As a result of oral feedback, all students improved significantly in grammatical accuracy and they often acted on the conference input by making positive minimal and substantive revisions. Content and stylistic changes made up the highest percentage. Multiple drafting led to improvement in overall writing quality. The students thought that process-oriented approach had a profound impact on their opinions about second language writing and raised their awareness of composition skills.