The students’ preference of the teacher’s feedbacks

17 “ Written because if I forget I can read it and revise it, specific because I know which part that is fault so I know the specific feedback of each paragraph, individual because she can give me more time to face to face with her.” Extract.17: Interview with Miss. Enyak October 22, 2012 “ Written because I can remember the feedback and if I forgot I can look back. Specific, so it more detail than general and I choose individual because I can know each wrong part in my draft.” The finding showed a clear students’ preference toward the kinds of feedback that the teacher gave in their writing class. When the students were asked to choose oral or written feedback, they stated that they wanted to get more in written feedback. It can be seen from the extract 14, 15, 16 and 17 that all of the participants chose written feedback because they could refer back to the feedback if they forgot and it was easy to remember. Like what have been stated in the previous discussion, oral feedback had a limitation since students might forgot what the teacher said so that it would interrupt students’ revision processes. In addition, the students also got generic as well as specific feedbacks in their writing class. In this case, they chose to have specific feedback because the feedback could give more details and was seen to be clearer. For example, in generic feedbacks, the teacher only put question marks to ask the students to explain further or elaborate those parts. This sometimes would lead students to confusion or even misunderstanding. This misunderstanding in doing the revision would result in other errors, which sometimes more severe, in their final drafts. When the students were asked to choose between group or individual feedbacks, the students’ responses showed that individual feedback was more desirable. They felt that it was more comfortable for them to ask as many questions as possible to the teacher, directly after the feedbacks were given. Moreover, individual feedbacks also helped the students to be more confident to revise their writing compositions since the feedbacks were given face to face. They claimed that when group feedbacks were delivered in front of the class, they 18 did not get clear messages about to which students those feedbacks were directed. From this statement, it could be said that group feedbacks were considered less effective compared to individual feedbacks. Extract 18: Interview with Miss Nyoo 23 October, 2012 “…individual feedbacks is better because in group feedback, I sometimes confused and ask my classmates about to whom the teacher gave the feedback. I also feel afraid if my teacher does not give me any feedback to revise my writing.” Extract 19: Interview with Miss Turtle 23 October, 2012 “…I have a fear that if the explanations of the group feedbacks are not clear enough, it will impact to the individual student who may confuse in revising hisher writing” From those two extract above, it could be said that when group feedbacks were given, teacher might not state to whom those feedbacks were directed. Group feedbacks were usually general instead of specific. So the teacher only stated the common errors made by the students, and this kind of feedback was usually not specific in content. It also found that group feedback might create students’ anxiety if the teacher did not give feedback directed to their writing compositions. Therefore, it was found that individual feedback was more desirable. Regarding the students’ preference that they believed in written, specific, and individual feedback were more helpful than others. This theme wanted to describe about the feedbacks that the students chose. This finding could become consideration for the teacher on the way how to give the feedback for them.

4. Students’ perception on the use of feedback for revision

When the students revised their draft writings, they tend to use the teachers’ feedback. Teacher’s written feedback is both helpful and desirable Lee Schallert, 2008 because it is considered to be the best way for communication with each student on a one-to-one basis. In 19 addition, teacher written feedback raises student writers’ awareness of the reader’s expectations Hedgcock Lefkowitz, 1994. Based on the interview, this study found that the students’ points of view toward the use of feedback for revision were various as stated below: Extract 19: Interview with Miss.Ice Cream November 5, 2012 “Yes, because the feedback has already been going well, so I think the feedback gives me benefit in improving my writing well, and feedback is helpful to improve my writing.” Extract.20: Interview with Miss.Enyok November 2, 2012 “I can learn from the previous feedback, so I can improve my writing” Extract.21: Interview with Miss.Nyoo October, 23, 2012 “Yes, I use feedback to revise my grammar because in my previous draft I make many grammatical mistakes, so I can improve my writing” This finding confirmed what Ashwell, 2000; Chandler, 2003 stated that the students who received corrective feedback improved the accuracy of their writing. The feedback could be used for revising and improving the students’ writing. As the interviewee stated in extract 19, Miss Ice Cream answered that the feedback gave her benefit to improve her writing. Same as Miss Nyoo in extract 17, she said that the feedback helped her to revise the grammatical mistake in her writing. In addition Miss Nyoo also responded that she could learn from the feedback to improve her writing. Clearly, it means that they could use their feedback in a good way because they used that feedback to revise their writings. The students said that the improvement of their writings could be seen clearly form the significantly reduced numbers of errors in their final drafts. When asked about what sort of suggestions that the students could give to make feedback more useful to improve their compositions, they said that: Extract 22: Interview with Miss Blue October 30, 2012