Written feedback is argued to be essential to students' growth as writers, and it is one of the most fundamental components of the ESL (English as a Second Language) or EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classroom (Mahfoodh and Pandian, 2011) ) . Students' different perceptions and preferences can influence whether the written feedback they receive is useful or not. The results of this study showed that students' perceptions of the teacher's written feedback varied.
Almost all the students had positive perceptions of the teacher's written feedback given to them.
INTRODUCTION
- Research Background
- Research Questions
- Research Objectives
- Research Contributions
Qutob and Madini (2020) also conducted a mixed method study on students' preferences for written feedback. How students of vocational secondary schools perceive the teacher's written feedback on their writing. What are the preferences of vocational high school students according to the teacher's written feedback.
The students' preferences for the teacher's written feedback and the reason why the students prefer that form of written feedback.
LITERATURE REVIEW
- Feedback in Writing
- Perceptions on Written Feedback
- Preferences on Written Feedback
- Previous Studies on Written Feedback
It is also assumed that students will react positively or perceive the teacher's written feedback. If the students perceive the teacher's written feedback positively, the purpose of the feedback has been achieved. Bijami (2016) conducted a study to investigate the effect of teachers' written feedback on students' writing performance.
Qutob and Madini (2020) also studied the students' preferences regarding the written feedback given to them.
RESEARCH METHOD
- Research Design
- Research Context
- Research Participants
- Data Collection Method
- Data Analysis Method
Based on the interview that had been conducted, the researcher presents the results of the interview regarding the students' perceptions. The students' perception of the written feedback, which can be seen in the interview transcript (see Appendix 3), is explained as follows. The results of the interview showed that the students' negative perception of the teacher's written feedback only occurred with one student or participant.
Student preferences for teacher written comments were then analyzed thematically based on the findings of the conducted interview. Student preferences for teacher written feedback on feedback were analyzed according to the theme provided by Hyland and Hyland (2006). Based on the interview results and as discussed in the findings section, it was found that students' perceptions of the teacher's written feedback varied.
The results showed that almost all students had a positive perception of the written feedback that the teacher gave them. It was said that the teacher's written feedback improves the students' current performance (Vattoy and Smith, 2019), helps the students determine what things need to be solved (Xiao and Yang, 2019), and improves their English language (Burner, 2015). Based on the preferences findings, for the type of written feedback they preferred, the students preferred direct feedback.
Finally, the findings on the feedback comments showed that the majority of the students preferred the suggestion type comments. The teacher can use different types of written feedback in which the students' preferences will also be different.
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Findings
- Students’ Perception s on Teacher’s Written Feedback
- Students’ Preferences on Teacher’s Written Feedback
From the above results, students' positive perception of teacher's written feedback can be concluded that they all agree that the function of written feedback is to show them in which area they are making mistakes. Because the student's perception of the teacher's written feedback was not helpful to the student, it affected the student's learning outcomes. The result of the interview showed that all participants preferred direct feedback more than indirect feedback.
They found that direct feedback is more useful for them because it contains more information about the mistakes they make in their writing. The results showed that none of the participants actually preferred indirect feedback, as it was unclear and contained only a few labels. Based on the conducted interview, the result showed that 3 participants prefer to focus the teacher's written feedback on the surface level.
For the content level, the results showed that two of the participants had chosen the content level as what the teacher should focus more on. As already appears from the above explanation, the students seem to think that the content level of the written feedback is complex and that they had a hard time. The results of the interview showed that one of the participants preferred praise because the student likes to be given a compliment by the teacher.
From the student's statement, it can be said that the student chose praise as the student preference in feedback. So, based on the results presented above, the prompts became the #1 highest selected by the students as their preferred feedback preferences over the written feedback given by the teacher.
Discussion
- Students’ Perception s on Teacher’s Written Feedback
- Students’ Preferences on Teacher’s Written Feedback
On the contrary, when the students do not perceive the written feedback from the teacher as motivating and helpful in studying or learning, a negative perception arises. If the students didn't see the feedback as useful to them, all the feedback they received would be useless. Moreover, even if it's just a small improvement in the students' writing, it's still progress.
Therefore, the teacher needs to think about the feedback he wants to give to the students and whether or not it is appropriate to give that feedback. It turned out that all students preferred direct feedback because it helps them more because the feedback is clear. It is in line with the study by Tom, et al. 2013) that the students preferred feedback in the form of grammar correction.
Suggestion used by the teacher when students still have some problems or mistakes in their writing. Most students also agreed that the feedback was helpful to them and motivated them to write better in future assignments. Written feedback based on students' preferences made them more motivated to learn from their mistakes in order to improve their writing.
The feedback can be in the form of grammar correction and suggestions, as the one most preferred by the students. A certain type of feedback can affect the effectiveness of the students in improving their performance in writing.
CONCLUSION
Conclusion
Based on the discussion in the previous chapter, the current study revealed that vocational school students had mixed perceptions of the teacher's written feedback. The students agreed that the purpose of the written feedback was to make them realize the mistakes in their writing or in other words to help them identify the mistakes in their writing. Regarding the preferences, data obtained in the result revealed that all the students preferred direct feedback over the other type of feedback.
They also preferred feedback in the form of suggestions and the teacher focusing more on grammatical aspects.
Suggestion
In order for students to see the feedback positively or positively, the teacher must make sure that they are aware of its meaning. However, they could still give other forms of feedback, but with a condition that the teacher must ensure that the students understand the meaning of the comments made. For the following researchers interested in the same topic, they can conduct their study but with a different research design or focus.
EFL learners' perceptions and preferences for corrective feedback in writing: a case study of university students from Mainland China. Attitudes of EFL students and teachers towards written feedback in writing classes: A case of Iraqi secondary schools. Learning to write in urban elementary and middle schools: An investigation of teachers' written comments on student compositions.
The effects of peer feedback on the writing anxiety of Turkish prospective EFL teachers. A qualitative case study of EFL students' affective reactions to and perceptions of their teachers' written feedback. Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: How formative assessment supports students' self-regulation in English language learning.
Research Matrix
Interview Guideline
Saya ingin guru saya memperbaiki semua kesalahan dalam tulisan saya karena saya perlu tahu di mana letak kesalahan saya). Saya ingin guru memperbaiki semua kesalahan dalam tulisan saya karena saya perlu tahu di mana letak kesalahannya. Saya lebih suka guru saya memberikan semacam nasihat tentang bagaimana melakukan pekerjaan saya.
Saya pikir semua aspek itu penting, tetapi saya pikir guru saya harus lebih fokus pada tata bahasa. Saya lebih suka guru saya untuk memperbaiki semua kesalahan saya kakak karena semua kesalahan itu penting bagi saya jadi jika guru saya hanya memperbaiki beberapa kesalahan nanti ketika saya sudah bekerja. Kadang-kadang guru sudah memberi saya koreksi, jadi saya rasa tidak perlu mengoreksi jawaban).
Tidak, saya tidak merasa termotivasi jadi saya hanya membaca umpan balik yang diberikan guru kepada saya. Saya lebih suka pujian karena guru memberi saya pujian, saya lebih suka ketika guru saya memberi saya pujian). Jika guru saya sudah memberikan jawaban yang benar, maka saya hanya bisa membacanya saja kak, tetapi jika saya memberikan seperti arahan, apa yang harus saya lakukan, maka saya akan mengikuti instruksi dan mereka akan saya koreksi).
Grammar kak karena menurutku grammar adalah yang paling sulit jadi guruku harus lebih fokus ke grammar). Saya pikir itu sebabnya guru saya memberi umpan balik, ya agar saya bisa memperbaiki kesalahan saya). pikir itu sebabnya guru saya memberi saya umpan balik sehingga saya bisa memperbaikinya. Perbaiki semua kesalahan, karena kalau guru hanya mengoreksi beberapa kesalahan saja, kita tidak tahu di mana letak kesalahan yang lain, jadi guru saya harus memperbaiki semua kesalahan itu. jadi dia harus memperbaiki semua kesalahan 8.
However, the students may want the teacher to focus on certain priorities in which this leads to their performance in writing.
Interview Transcription (Thematic Analysis)
Permission Letter to Conduct a Research
Statement Letter for Accomplishing a Research
