Cognitive component T1 112008153 Full text

11 Direct written teacher‟s feedback indicates the location of an error and provides clues on how to correct it. Indirect written te acher‟s feedback indicates only the location of an error by underlining, circling, making marks where something is missing, or putting a question mark where something is unclear without indicating its nature. It is very common for some writing teachers to combine both direct and indirect written teacher‟s feedback once in a student‟s draft. p.214 According to Reesor 2000 , “Symbol feedback is a kind of feedback that focus on form concerns more on the grammatical and language accuracy and its mechanical features ”, such as: spelling and punctuation ”p.243. There are many symbols that the teachers usually use, for example, “p” means wrong punctuation, “sp” means wrong spelling, “Ro” means run on sentence, “underline” means wrong expression, and “circle” means wrong or not appropriate words and etc. By using these symbols, the students can identify the mistakes specifically, so it is easier for them to correct their writing. Since the teachers focus on the students‟ grammatical errors and language accuracy, the students are expected to be more careful in writing. They need to pay attention on grammar and language that they use. Hence, according to Ferris 1999 as cited in Mimi 2009, “During commenting on students‟ writings, teachers may underline the grammar, spelling or mechanical mistakes which encourage students‟ self- correction ”p.61. In this case, the students need to correct and learn from their mistakes, so they can avoid the same mistakes in the future. The purpose of self-correction is to encourage the students to be independent learners. Therefore, the students can take advantages from the use of symbol feedback. According to Sinclair 2001, “Independent learner is a student who takes responsibility for thinking and learning themselves.” In this case, the teachers only give some clues to help the students find the errors, and then the students should think critically and do self-correction to make their writing better.