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writings than the students who received mostly direct feedback p.400. It showed that the students who received symbol feedback could decrease the errors because the students were
accustomed with doing self-correction. The teacher only gave the clues and helped the students identify where the mistakes and then the one who were required to solve the problems were the
students themselves. In contrast, students who received direct feedback could make more errors because the students had limited experiences in correcting their own mistakes. Therefore, the
students‟ experiences in dealing with their own mistakes influenced the students to be more accurate in writing and helped them decrease the errors. The result of the study is similar with
the previous studies by Erel 2007 and Ferris 2000, so there was an evidence that symbol feedback was helpful for the students in decreasing the errors as the students could improve
their accuracy in writing.
b. Symbol feedback improved the students’ skills in writing
According to Schlossberg 2002 as cited in Efimova 2004, “The skill of writing is to
create a context in which other people can think”. In order to deliver the ideas, the writers needed to make sure that their writing is comprehensible. Therefore, the writers had to pay
attention on grammar, punctuation, word choice, text organization, cohesive and coherence, so the readers could understand what the writers wanted to deliver in their writing. This statement
was supported by Mahfoodh 2011 who stated, “EFL students indicated that they paid great attention to their teachers‟ feedback because they needed help to develop their writing skills
and to improve their current and future written texts ”p.21. From the result of the interview, I
found all of the participants 100 said that the use of symbol feedback could help them improve their skills in writing.
Students found that symbol feedback was helpful in improving their skills in writing :
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Extract 3 Felicia
“Symbol feedback is important for the student’s progress in writing, especially on the idea in expressing something. Now, I think I can arrange sentence in good order, so it can be
understood.”
Extract 4 Lisa
“At the first time, I do so many mistakes on my writing, especially grammar. Now, I see I can write sentences with correct grammar. Actually, not 100 correct but at least I can decrease
the errors .”
The statements above showed that symbol feedback did not only help the students
decrease the errors, but also could help them improve their writing skills. When the teacher used symbol feedback, the teacher did not only focus on surface errors like grammar or
punctuation, but the teachers also paid attention on the ideas of their writing. In this case, the students had to make their writing good and easy to understand. Therefore, when the students
wanted to express something in their writing, they needed to pay attention on the words that they used, so the expressions could be meaningful and understandable.
According to Chandler 2003 as cited in Erel 200 7, “Students want error feedback
and think that it helps them improve their writing skills in the target language ”p.398. This
statement showed that symbol feedback provided error feedback for the students to correct them independently, symbol feedback could help the students improve their writing skills
because they realized that there were something wrong with their writing and they needed to improve it. From the result of the study by Erel 2007, there was clear information that the one
who wanted the error feedback was the students. It meant that the students needed error feedback because they believed that it could enhance their skills in writing. Since the students
were the doers and had experiences in dealing with error feedback, her finding could give
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evidence that symbol feedback had positive impact to the improvement of the students‟ skills in writing because it seemed impossible for the students to expect their teachers to use symbol
feedback if there was no advantage that they could take.
c. Symbols feedback helped the students find their weaknesses in writing
Symbol feedback could help the students find their weaknesses in writing meant that the students could see what areas that they needed to improve. When the teacher used symbol
feedback, the students could identify the kind of symbols that appeared in their papers. Therefore, the students needed to improve their skills in order to deal with their weaknesses.
Based on the interview, 12 students 66 said that symbol feedback could help them identify their weaknesses.
Students admitted that they could find their weaknesses by identifying what kind of
symbol that often occurred in their writing :
Extract 5 Windi
“I often see many circles on my paper, especially on the use of conjunctions and prepositions like in, on, or at. I realize
that I can’t use those preposition correctly. I am always confused to
use that, so I should learn to solve that.”
Extract 6 Ema
“When I read my writing, I look for the mistakes, so I can find my weaknesses by identifying the symbol that often occurs on my writing. For example, there are many circles on my writing, so
it means that I need to be more careful in word choice. So, that is my weakness.”
