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

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.