Improving writing teacher feedback literacy: The role of an L2 writing teacher education course

IF 2.8 3区 教育学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Shulin Yu
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Feedback-literate teachers should also develop values that view feedback as a dialogical and interactive process between teachers and students, as well as a sociocultural tool for promoting learner agency and developing writing proficiency and skills (Lee, <span>2021</span>).</p><p>Although previous research has indicated L2 writing teachers' lack of writing assessment literacy and feedback literacy in different contexts (Lee, <span>2021</span>), little research has examined how writing teachers' feedback literacy can be developed in teacher education programmes and courses. This paper reports on how the elements of writing teachers' feedback literacy were developed in an L2 writing teacher education course in Macau.</p><p>This multiple-case study was conducted in a 2-year master's teacher education programme at a Macau University (Yu et al., <span>2022</span>). The course ‘Teaching Second Language Writing’ was developed to enhance writing teachers' instructional skills and competencies in L2 contexts. Three sessions of this course focused on different issues regarding feedback, including written corrective feedback, teacher feedback practices, peer feedback and computer-mediated feedback.</p><p>Five participants, Tina, Alicia, Stephania, John and Nelson, were invited to participate in this study. They had been working as English teachers and teaching writing in different contexts in Macau and the Chinese Mainland at the time of the study. Multiple data sources, including semi-structured interviews, stimulated recalls and the participants' L2 writing teaching materials, were gathered to reveal how the course assisted the participants in developing feedback literacy. Participants in the semi-structured interviews were asked about their changes in feedback knowledge, skills, and values, as well as their feedback practices. Their sample feedback on student written assignments, as well as other teaching materials, were gathered. The data were analysed using a narrative construction approach, which is defined ‘a systematic and integrated way to organise the various pieces of information about each individual participant and then to compare findings across five cases’ (Ferris et al., <span>2013</span>).</p><p>The study's findings indicate that the L2 writing education course improved the five participants' knowledge, values and skills in using feedback to develop students' L2 writing proficiency. Participants were able to elaborate on the importance and principles of providing feedback to student writers in both schools and universities as a result of their course learning experiences, and they gained more knowledge about the use of feedback in L2 writing classrooms. 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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Although research on writing assessment and feedback has provided useful pedagogical implications to writing researchers and teachers, assessing and responding to writing still presents a major challenge to many writing teachers. Thus, most recent research has paid attention to the crucial role of teacher feedback literacy, which is conceptualised as competencies in terms of their knowledge, values and skills regarding feedback (Lee, 2021; Lee & Mao, 2024). Feedback-literate teachers should have the essential knowledge and skills to provide effective feedback and engage students in using feedback to improve their writing. Feedback-literate teachers should also develop values that view feedback as a dialogical and interactive process between teachers and students, as well as a sociocultural tool for promoting learner agency and developing writing proficiency and skills (Lee, 2021).

Although previous research has indicated L2 writing teachers' lack of writing assessment literacy and feedback literacy in different contexts (Lee, 2021), little research has examined how writing teachers' feedback literacy can be developed in teacher education programmes and courses. This paper reports on how the elements of writing teachers' feedback literacy were developed in an L2 writing teacher education course in Macau.

This multiple-case study was conducted in a 2-year master's teacher education programme at a Macau University (Yu et al., 2022). The course ‘Teaching Second Language Writing’ was developed to enhance writing teachers' instructional skills and competencies in L2 contexts. Three sessions of this course focused on different issues regarding feedback, including written corrective feedback, teacher feedback practices, peer feedback and computer-mediated feedback.

Five participants, Tina, Alicia, Stephania, John and Nelson, were invited to participate in this study. They had been working as English teachers and teaching writing in different contexts in Macau and the Chinese Mainland at the time of the study. Multiple data sources, including semi-structured interviews, stimulated recalls and the participants' L2 writing teaching materials, were gathered to reveal how the course assisted the participants in developing feedback literacy. Participants in the semi-structured interviews were asked about their changes in feedback knowledge, skills, and values, as well as their feedback practices. Their sample feedback on student written assignments, as well as other teaching materials, were gathered. The data were analysed using a narrative construction approach, which is defined ‘a systematic and integrated way to organise the various pieces of information about each individual participant and then to compare findings across five cases’ (Ferris et al., 2013).

The study's findings indicate that the L2 writing education course improved the five participants' knowledge, values and skills in using feedback to develop students' L2 writing proficiency. Participants were able to elaborate on the importance and principles of providing feedback to student writers in both schools and universities as a result of their course learning experiences, and they gained more knowledge about the use of feedback in L2 writing classrooms. In the interviews, Nelson explained the crucial role of feedback in the revising stage of writing and elaborated the on differences among different feedback strategies such as direct written corrective feedback, indirect written corrective feedback, form-focused and content-focused feedback. He stated that the feedback knowledge learned in the teaching L2 writing course could facilitate his teaching (Interview). His feedback samples also revealed that he could use these feedback strategies and principles in marking student-written assignments.

In addition, the participants developed positive values and attitudes toward the role of feedback in L2 writing instruction. Although providing feedback can be tedious and time-consuming, all participants agreed that in process-genre-oriented writing classes, they should provide detailed, focused and specific feedback on drafts of student writing. Alicia mentioned that feedback could help primary students gradually develop their writing proficiency because writing is a dynamic and recursive process that can present significant challenges to younger students in L2 contexts. John emphasised the significance of incorporating a variety of feedback methods, such as form-focused feedback, content-focused feedback, oral feedback and computer-mediated feedback.

Finally, the participants were able to strategically and skilfully use feedback according to the actual instructional contexts, thanks to the knowledge learnt from the L2 writing education course. Participants were asked to reflect on the nature of the best feedback practice and to debate what the best feedback practice is. In this task, they could gain an understanding of how to adjust their feedback strategies and skills in actual teaching practice. Alicia modified her written feedback practice in the study, shifting from comprehensive written corrective feedback to focused and metalinguistic feedback, and she also conducted peer feedback activities in which primary students with higher language proficiency were paired with those with lower language proficiency. Similarly, Stephania asked the more advanced students to provide peer feedback on the writing of their classmates. She specifically provided indirect feedback to students with high language proficiency and direct feedback to students with low proficiency.

While previous research has looked at how teacher education programmes and courses affect writing teachers' feedback beliefs and practices, this study adds to the body of knowledge by demonstrating how teacher feedback literacy can be developed through the L2 writing education course. These findings are encouraging to both teacher educators and writing teachers as they suggest that teacher education courses may have long-term effects on the elements of teacher feedback literacy. As the elements of teacher candidates' feedback literacy can be developed as a result of their learning experiences in teacher education courses, this study also reveals the importance of teaching feedback literacy in teacher education programmes. Future research may draw upon multiple sources of data to investigate how writing teachers develop their writing feedback literacy in practice and examine teacher educators' perspectives and teaching practices regarding the development of teacher participants' feedback literacy in L2 writing.

提高写作教师的反馈素养:中级写作教师教育课程的作用
尽管有关写作评估和反馈的研究为写作研究者和教师提供了有益的教学启示,但对许多写作教师而言,评估和回应写作仍然是一项重大挑战。因此,最新的研究关注教师反馈素养的关键作用,将其概念化为教师在反馈方面的知识、价值观和技能等方面的能力(Lee, 2021; Lee &amp; Mao, 2024)。有反馈素养的教师应具备提供有效反馈的基本知识和技能,并让学生利用反馈改进写作。有反馈素养的教师还应树立这样的价值观:将反馈视为教师与学生之间的对话和互动过程,以及促进学习者能动性和发展写作熟练程度与技能的社会文化工具(Lee,2021)。尽管以往的研究表明,在不同的情境中,后进写作教师缺乏写作评估素养和反馈素养(Lee,2021),但很少有研究探讨如何在教师教育计划和课程中培养写作教师的反馈素养。本文报告了如何在澳门的第二语言写作教师教育课程中培养写作教师的反馈素养。这项多重案例研究是在澳门大学的两年制硕士教师教育课程中进行的(Yu et al.)第二语言写作教学 "课程旨在提高写作教师在第二语言环境中的教学技能和能力。该课程的三节课集中讨论了有关反馈的不同问题,包括书面纠正反馈、教师反馈实践、同伴反馈和计算机辅助反馈。五名参与者,Tina、Alicia、Stephania、John和Nelson应邀参加了本研究。五位参与者分别是蒂娜(Tina)、艾丽西亚(Alicia)、斯蒂芬妮娅(Stephania)、约翰(John)和纳尔逊(Nelson)。研究收集了多种数据来源,包括半结构式访谈、启发式回忆和学员的第二语言写作教材,以揭示课程如何帮助学员发展反馈素养。在半结构式访谈中,学员被问及他们在反馈知识、技能和价值观方面的变化,以及他们的反馈实践。还收集了他们对学生书面作业以及其他教学材料的反馈样本。研究结果表明,L2 写作教育课程提高了五位参与者使用反馈来提高学生 L2 写作水平的知识、价值观和技能。学员们通过课程学习,阐述了在学校和大学中为学生写作提供反馈的重要性和原则,并获得了更多关于在 L2 写作课堂中使用反馈的知识。在访谈中,纳尔逊解释了反馈在写作修改阶段的关键作用,并阐述了不同反馈策略的区别,如直接书面纠正反馈、间接书面纠正反馈、形式反馈和内容反馈。他表示,在教授 L2 写作课程中学到的反馈知识有助于他的教学(访谈)。他的反馈样本还显示,他可以在批改学生书面作业时使用这些反馈策略和原则。此外,学员们还对反馈在第二语言写作教学中的作用形成了积极的价值观和态度。虽然提供反馈可能会比较繁琐和耗时,但所有学员都认为,在过程流派导向的写作课上,他们应该对学生的写作草稿提供详细、有针对性和具体的反馈。艾丽西亚提到,反馈可以帮助小学生逐步提高写作水平,因为写作是一个动态的、递归的过程,在语言学习环境中会给低年级学生带来巨大的挑战。约翰强调了多种反馈方法的重要性,如形式反馈、内容反馈、口头反馈和计算机辅助反馈等。最后,学员们通过学习第二语言写作教育课程的知识,能够根据实际教学情境有策略地、娴熟地使用反馈。学员们被要求反思最佳反馈实践的本质,并就什么是最佳反馈实践展开讨论。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
European Journal of Education
European Journal of Education EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-
CiteScore
4.50
自引率
0.00%
发文量
47
期刊介绍: The prime aims of the European Journal of Education are: - To examine, compare and assess education policies, trends, reforms and programmes of European countries in an international perspective - To disseminate policy debates and research results to a wide audience of academics, researchers, practitioners and students of education sciences - To contribute to the policy debate at the national and European level by providing European administrators and policy-makers in international organisations, national and local governments with comparative and up-to-date material centred on specific themes of common interest.
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