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Exploring student engagement with written corrective feedback in first-year composition courses

Description
This study provides insights into the nature of L2 writers' engagement with written corrective feedback (WCF) - how they process it and what they understand about the nature of the error - to explore its potential for language development. It also explores various factors, such as individual, socio-contextual, and pedagogical,…

This study provides insights into the nature of L2 writers' engagement with written corrective feedback (WCF) - how they process it and what they understand about the nature of the error - to explore its potential for language development. It also explores various factors, such as individual, socio-contextual, and pedagogical, which influence the extent of student engagement. Data include students' revisions recorded with screen-capture software and video-stimulated recall. The video-stimulated recall data were transcribed and coded for evidence of processing, error awareness, and error resolution. In addition, I conducted interviews with students and their instructors, and through a thematic analysis, I identified individual and socio-contextual factors that appeared to influence students' engagement.

The findings of the study indicate that the processing of WCF and error awareness may be affected by pedagogical factors, such as the type of feedback and its delivery method. In addition, I found that while socio-contextual factors, such as grading policy, may influence students' attitudes toward the importance of grammar accuracy in their writing or motivation to seek help with grammar outside of class, such factors do not appear to affect students' engagement with WCF at the time of revision.

Based on the insights gained from this study, I suggest that direct feedback may be more beneficial if it is provided in a comment or in the margin of the paper, and that both direct and indirect feedback may be more effective if a brief explanation about the nature of the error is included. In addition, students may need to be provided with guidelines on how to engage with their instructors' feedback. I conclude by suggesting that if WCF is provided, students should be held accountable for making revisions, and I recommend ways in which this can be done without penalizing students for not showing immediate improvements on subsequent writing projects.
ContributorsUscinski, Izabela (Author) / Matsuda, Paul K (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / James, Mark A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
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A framework for understanding second language writing strategies

Description

This study articulates a framework of writing strategies and validates the framework by using it to examine the writing process of researchers as they write journal articles for publication. The framework advances a definition of writing strategies and a classification system for categorizing strategies that is based on strategic goals.…

This study articulates a framework of writing strategies and validates the framework by using it to examine the writing process of researchers as they write journal articles for publication. The framework advances a definition of writing strategies and a classification system for categorizing strategies that is based on strategic goals. In order to develop the framework, I first synthesize existing literature on writing strategies found in second language writing studies, composition studies, and second language acquisition. I then observe the writing process of four researchers as they write journal articles for publication and use the framework to analyze participants’ goals, their strategies for accomplishing goals, the resources they use to carry out strategies, and the variables that influence their goals and strategies. Data for the study was collected using qualitative methods, including video recordings of writing activities, stimulated-recall interviews, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. The study shows that the framework introduced in the study is useful for analyzing writers’ strategies in a comprehensive way. An operationalizable definition of ‘writing strategies’ is the conscious and internalized agentive ideas of a writer about the best way to act, often with the use of resources, in order to reach specific writing goals embedded in a context. Writing strategies can be categorized into seven types of strategic goals: composing, coping, learning, communicating, self-representation, meta-strategies, and publishing. The framework provides a way to understand writing strategies holistically—as a unit of goal, action, and resource—and highlights variability in writers’ actions and use of resources. Some of this variability in writers’ strategies can be explained by the influence of various contextual factors, which are identified in the analysis. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of how the framework can be used to inform future research and classroom teaching on writing strategies.
ContributorsKim, Youmie J (Author) / Matsuda, Paul Kei (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / James, Mark A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
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Language Learning Strategies Used by Higher Level Students in Target Language Environment and EFL/Foreign Language Environment

Description
Language learning strategy (LLS) has been long considered as one of the most important variables impacting language performance. Learning context, as a major effect on LLS choices, has not been paid much attention compared to other individual variables in LLS research. For the purpose of highlighting contextual influence in LLS…

Language learning strategy (LLS) has been long considered as one of the most important variables impacting language performance. Learning context, as a major effect on LLS choices, has not been paid much attention compared to other individual variables in LLS research. For the purpose of highlighting contextual influence in LLS research, the present study investigated LLSs used by higher level students in a target language environment and an EFL/foreign language environment. To achieve the goals, a total of 44 enrolled doctoral students (19 in the United States and 25 in China) were recruited as participants. A background survey, a questionnaire (i.e., Language Strategy Use Inventory [LSUI]), and semi-structured interviews were deployed to gather data. The findings first showed that higher level students used a wide repertoire of LLSs to facilitate their language learning in each learning environment. Second, the findings identified eight specific contextual factors influencing the LLS use of higher level students in both learning environments, which included access to target language, participation in an academic environment, access to target language learning sources, experience as a teaching associate/research assistant, exposure to diverse accents and dialects of the target language, lack of feedback on errors, experience in target language classes, and beliefs about social reaction to learning target language. Third, the findings also showed that students reported some specific LLSs to be most useful in each learning environment. For example, “talking with (native) English speakers” was considered as a useful speaking strategy in target language environment, and “using language learning applications (APPs)” was considered as a useful listening and speaking strategy in EFL/foreign language environment. In addition, implications for future research and pedagogy were offered. Keywords: Language learning strategy (LLS), learning context (environment), higher level students, target language environment (TLE), EFL/foreign language environment (E/FLE), mixed methods
ContributorsPei, Xiaoyu (Author) / James, Mark A (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / Van Gelderen, Elly (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
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Formulaic vs. Non-Formulaic Constructions in Second Language Writing: A MixedMethods Learner Corpus Cum Experimental Research

Description
Written corrective feedback (WCF) has received considerable attention in secondlanguage (L2) writing research. The conducive role of WCF in developing L2 writing and second language acquisition has been corroborated by a number of theoretical frameworks, and the findings of empirical studies, meta-analyses, and research syntheses. WCF research has predominantly addressed its effectiveness in…

Written corrective feedback (WCF) has received considerable attention in secondlanguage (L2) writing research. The conducive role of WCF in developing L2 writing and second language acquisition has been corroborated by a number of theoretical frameworks, and the findings of empirical studies, meta-analyses, and research syntheses. WCF research has predominantly addressed its effectiveness in improving learners’ syntactic, lexical, and orthographic knowledge. This dissertation project extends the scope of this line of research to formulaic aspects of language and investigates the relative effectiveness of WCF targeting formulaic vs. non-formulaic constructions in L2 writing. The text-analytic descriptive aspect of this research design aimed at investigating the extent of L2 learners’ non-target-like use of formulaic vs. non-formulaic forms in L2 writing and writing teachers’ WCF treatment of non-target (non)formulaic language use. A total of 480 first drafts of essays written by 33 advanced adult English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) learners during one semester and 480 drafts of essays corrected through WCF by three EFL teachers constituted the corpus in this study. Advancing the field of learner corpus research, the findings demonstrated that whereas learners’ non-target formulaic forms outnumbered that of non-formulaic ones in their writing assignments, all three teachers provided WCF more often for erroneous use of non-formulaic forms. The quasi-experimental aspect of the research design attempts to add new empirical evidence on the L2 learning potential of accessing and processing WCF provided for formulaic vs. non-formulaic constructions in L2 writing. To this end, a total of 66 EFL learners in a Test of English as a Foreign Language preparation course participated in a pretest-posttest design, with 5 experimental groups (those who were provided with direct, indirect, direct plus metalinguistic, and indirect plus metalinguistic WCF) and a control group (those who were not provided with WCF). Maintaining a division between formulaic vs. non-formulaic forms, the findings provide empirical evidence on the interactions between types of WCF, types of linguistic targets, and the effectiveness of WCF in terms of enhancing L2 learners’ accuracy and acquisition in their revised writing and new writings in the short and long term.
ContributorsGholami, Leila (Author) / Smith, David (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Paul K (Committee member) / James, Mark A (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022