AN ACTION RESEARCH ON FOSTERING CRITICAL THINKING IN EFL WRITING THROUGH FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK

Abstract

This action research reports how a college English teacher improved her essay writing instruction. The original course design consisted of instruction and four rounds of drafting and revising under assigned topics. While the teacher had been busy enough giving individual feedback, an important element of cultivating critical thinking and giving learners a voice was absent from the course. To address the problem, the teacher required learners to write an additional essay on a topic they each chose, designed an assessment scheme with multi-stage and multi-source feedback, and celebrated the final products at the end of the semester. During the process, the teacher was no longer the only feedback provider. Instead, essay development was arranged into six stages including idea generation, general outline, detailed outline, drafting, editing and proofreading. For each stage, feedback came from two different sources, such as the teaching assistant and peers. The feedback consisted of questions and challenges and helped the author learners improve from one stage to the next. The resultant essays were examined against a critical thinking rubric. Analysis indicated that these essays demonstrated unique personal opinions and that the writers had control over the structure of critical thinking. But in terms of the soundness of reasoning, there was more room for improvement.