An investigation of two teacher written feedback procedures in efl classes: Form-focused and content-focused feedback

Abstract

As process-oriented approaches have become common practice and replaced product-oriented approaches in writing classes, written teacher feedback which is valued by both learners and instructors has attracted more attention in teaching and learning contexts as well as in educational research. Writing instructors seem to spend a lot of time providing feedback. However, the effectiveness of various kinds of written teacher feedback is a research area which is still investigated and the results yield conflicting results. In a quest to help students with acquiring writing skill, best practices of teacher feedback are researched. The study aims to investigate the effects of form-focused and content-focused feedback on EFL students' overall writing performance, their writing attitudes and the writing anxiety that they experienced in writing classes. The study also examines students' perceptions towards the aforementioned feedback procedures. A quasi-experimental design was employed for this study. Two groups at the School of Foreign Languages were formed: an experimental group which was provided with content-focused feedback and a control group which was provided with form-focused feedback. A combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods was used in this investigation and data were collected through writing tests, a writing attitude questionnaire, second language writing anxiety inventory and semi-structured interviews. The results of the study revealed that both groups improved significantly in new pieces of writing, while writing attitudes and anxiety levels of learners did not differ significantly. The qualitative analysis showed that students still perceive writing at the service of grammar, aim to improve their grammar accuracy and show some persistence to the feedback procedure which focused on communication of information in their writings. The study has some implications for EFL teachers and decision-makers