Written Feedback In Second Language Writing: Perceptions Of Vietnamese Teachers And Students

Abstract

Writing can be very challenging for ESL students since they need to overcome the changes associated with academic writing styles and their mechanics in order to improve their writing skills (Hyland & Hyland, 2006). In Vietnam, English is known as a foreign language in all public and private schools, and writing is a compulsory component. It is unavoidable that students will make errors in their writing development process, and feedback is a fundamental requirement to reduce these errors. Even if giving feedback costs a great deal of time, it can be the most significant investment of writing instructors (Ferris, 2002). In the last 20 years, many studies have examined a wide range of issues in academic writing, including the types of feedback, and stakeholders’ perceptions about feedback; however, the results have been contradictory. Mahmud (2016) revealed that teachers are often forced to use their own writing experience and intuitive criteria due to the lack of information on how to give feedback. Nevertheless, researchers tend to focus on either students’ or teachers’ perceptions, or both teachers’ and students’ perceptions, about different types of feedback in writing (Atmaca, 2016). In Vietnam, there are few studies about students’ and teachers’ perceptions of written feedback. This study investigated the views of both Vietnamese students and teachers on peer feedback, direct feedback, indirect coded feedback, indirect un-coded feedback, and self-feedback to fulfil the gap. Thirty-six university students in Finance and Banking and two senior English teachers participated in this study. Due to the unexpected pandemic, the researcher changed the study from in-class to online. This qualitative research employs questionnaires and interviews. The pre-questionnaire in class before the outbreak of coronavirus in Vietnam, but the rest of the questionnaire surveys and interviews were collected online because the school had shut down. The students were grouped into two separate online groups on Facebook with their classmates, and they were asked to complete five surveys about five different types of feedback. The findings revealed some similarities between teachers’ and students’ perceptions of feedback in L2 writing. In terms of similarities, both teachers and students agreed that feedback played an important role in L2 writing learning and teaching. Teachers and students believed that feedback could affect L2 learners’ cognitive engagement in writing and some types of feedback could affect learners’ psychology. Moreover, training was necessary to improve peer feedback in both quality and quantity of feedback and to help students use this type of feedback more effectively. The results from teachers’ interviews and students’ surveys also revealed the discrepancies between teachers’ and students’ perceptions of feedback in L2 writing. This study concludes that using appropriate types of teacher feedback can boost students’ confidence to improve their writing skills in the long term.