T1 112008001 Full text
i
ACADEMIC WRITING STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD WRITTEN TEACHER
FEEDBACK ON THEIR FIRST DRAFT
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
CHRISTINA NATALIA SUTRESNO
(112008001)
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
ii
iii
iv
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
For the very first time I would like to thank Jesus, my wonderful Lord. I know
only by Your grace that I can finally finish this thesis. Thank you so much Jesus, my
everything. I am also thankful for my family who always support me to do the best and
always there for me and my brothers in every condition and pray for me every day.
Moreover, I would like to thank to my supervisor and my second reader, Bu Victoria Usadya
and Bu Martha Nandari who help me finish this thesis. Furthermore, thank you for Miss
Kalaly who is very kind to me and allowed me to do the research in her class and also thank
you for Academic Writing students who are willing to help me by accepting to be
interviewed. Thank you very much for your time. Finally, I would like to thank to all of my
friends since my childhood till now, I miss you and I love you all.
1
ACADEMIC WRITING STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD WRITTEN
TEACHER FEEDBACK ON THEIR FIRST DRAFT
Christina Natalia Sutresno
ABSTRACT
This study explored Academic Writing students’ perceptions toward written teacher
feedback on their first draft in the English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University.
The data were collected from interviews with 14 Academic Writing students of the English
Department in a private university in Central Java. The kind of interview that was used in this
study is semi-structured interview. This study resulted in four major themes. The first theme
was about the students’ feeling toward their first draft revision. The second theme was about
students’ expectation of the teacher comments. The third theme discussed about teacher
comment on students’ first draft and the last theme was about the students’ perceptions
toward a good teacher feedback. Finally, from the data, the study came to a conclusion that
Academic Writing students had positive perceptions toward their teacher written feedback.
They found it useful, especially in the content and organization aspect. The result of this
study can be used for Academic Writing teacher to know what kind of feedback the students
really need.
Keywords: perception, feedback
INTRODUCTION
Writing classes are required classes which have to be taken by the students of the Faculty of
Language and Literature. Basically, writing classes are divided into four levels of classes that
are Guided Writing, Narrative & Descriptive Writing, Expository & Argumentative Writing,
and Academic Writing. In all of these classes, the students are asked to make papers and the
process of making them is step by step from the first draft to the second draft and finally to
the final draft or the final product of their works. In the first and second draft, the students are
given feedback from the teacher and their friends and the feedback can be useful for them to
revise their draft because the teacher feedback can help the students know where the errors of
their writing are. Feedback, as viewed by Furnborough and Truman (2009) cited in Magno,
and Amarles (2011) entails the existence of gaps between what has been learned and the
target competence of the learners, and the efforts undertaken to bridge these gaps. It means
2
that feedback should help the students to reach the expected target competence. In addition,
Ferris said that feedback also comes in various linguistic forms, it may be in questions,
statements, imperatives, or exclamations, and comments can be softened through the use of a
variety of hedging devices (Ferris, 1997). Moreover, Furnborough and Truman (2009) also
added that this feedback is provided to ask for further information, to give directions,
suggestions, or requests for revision, to give students new information that will help them
revise, and to give positive feedback about what the students have done well (Ferris, 1997).
However, the validity of whether teacher feedback gives effects to the students’ writing
development is still doubtful. As what is cited in Ellis (2007) as a recent review of feedback
on L2 students’ writing, Hyland and Hyland noted that “while feedback is a central aspect of
L2 writing programs across the world, the research literature has not been equivocally
positive about its role in L2 development, and teachers often have a sense they are not
making use of its full potential.” (p. 83). Therefore, in this study, I would like to know the
Academic Writing students’ perceptions toward written teacher feedback on their first draft.
There are a study that have attempted to explain that although there is research that
show students value teacher feedback and find it useful to help them improve their writing
(Leki 1991), negative effects of teacher feedback have been reported in the literature, such as
frustration
and
confusion
(Mantello
1997),
and
student
under-achievement
and
underexpectation through unfocused marking (OFSTED 1996). Student under-achievement
and underexpectation means the student’s work cannot fulfill the predetermined criteria of a
good writing. Since some believe that written teacher feedback is given to help students in
making their writing better, we need to know where the most important aspects of written
teacher feedback given are, whether it is on the format aspect, mechanic aspect, content and
organization, grammar, or vocabulary choice aspect. Recent evidence suggests that since
teacher responses to student writing are expected to help students develop their ideas fully
3
and present them effectively, feedback needs to cover all aspects of students’ written texts,
including issues of content, organization, style, grammar, and mechanics (Magno, and
Amarles ,2011). In addition, in Magno, and Amarles (2011), it is also cited that Ferris,
Pezone, Tade, and Tinti (1997) concluded that teachers’ feedback goes beyond whether a
teacher responds to “content” or “form”. Therefore, I want to know how the students see the
focus of the teacher’s feedback. Some experts, like Fathman and Walley (1990), as well as
Fregeau in Williams (2003) reported that teacher feedback on content in the form of teacher
comments is often vague, contradictory, unsystematic and inconsistent. Fregeau said that this
leads to various reactions by students including confusion, frustration and neglect of the
comments.
This study is narrowed down for the Academic Writing students in this University
only. It is hoped that this study can give benefit to the teacher to know what kind of feedback
that the students really need.
LITERATURE REVIEW
One of the important keywords for this study is ‘perception’. Allport (1966) defines
‘perception’ as the way we judge or evaluate others. Hence, students’ perception in this study
can be viewed as their judgements or evaluation of their written teacher feedback. The other
important keyword is ‘feedback’. According to Ramaprasad (1983), “feedback is information
about the gap between the actual level and the reference level of a system parameter which is
used to alter the gap in some way” (p.4). In education this means the learner has to “possess a
concept of the standard (or goal or reference level) being aimed for, compare the actual (or
current) level of performance with the standard and engage in appropriate action which leads
to closure of the gap” (Sadler, 1989). Moreover, Carlson stated that feedback is “authoritative
4
information students receive that will reinforce or modify responses to instruction and guide
them more efficiently in attaining the goals of the course”.
The early research in Critical Feedback on Written Corrective Feedback Research by
Storch (2010) indicated that there are two kinds of focuses in feedback: 1. Feedback which
focus on some range of issues or content; and 2. Feedback which focus on language use,
termed written corrective feedback (WCF).
WCF itself is divided into two parts. The
distinction between types of WCF was mainly between direct and indirect WCF. In (Storch,
2010), Ferris stated that direct WCF refers to the provision of the correct linguistic form or
structure by the teacher, and indirect WCF refers to feedback which simply indicates to the
writer that an error has been made, usually via a symbol or an abbreviation (e.g. ‘vb’
representing an error in the use of verbs).
Many historians have argued about the students’ response and preference toward
written teacher feedback. Surveys such as conducted by Nordin, Halib, Ghazali, and Mahari
(2010) suggested some quotation from some experts. Firstly, Hyland (2003b: 179) cited in
Nordin et al. (2010) noted that students prefer comments on the content and organization in
their earlier drafts. Other studies, however, showed different findings. Secondly, Fathman and
Walley (1990) also cited in Nordin et al. (2010) for instance, indicated that learners show
significant improvement if comments on both grammar and content are given at the same
time. The last quotation is the study on teacher response patterns by Ashwell (2000) cited in
Nordin et al. (2010). It concluded that it does not matter to learners in which order they
received the form or content feedback.
Furthermore, teacher written feedback is believed to have several benefits for the
writing students. The first benefit is that it can give improvements for the students in writing.
The study conducted by Patthey-Chavez and Ferris (1997) in Telçeker (n.d., p.3) stated that
“In cases where oral conferences are successful, they not only lead to revisions in the drafting
5
process, but also have subsequent effects on the improvement of the writing ability in later
assignments.”
The second advantage of written teacher feedback is that it can be used to do selfevaluation for Writing students. The students will be more aware of where their mistakes in
writing are if they are given written teacher feedback because it can indicate where the errors
are located on. After that they can start to evaluate the words that should be added, deleted or
changed in their writing. As (Case, 2007) cited in Ferguson (2011, p.2) : “Assessment
feedback is vital for promoting learning and motivating students to improve by facilitating
reflection and self-evaluation, as well as highlighting errors, deficiencies and problems”.
After the students know where their mistakes are, they can also be taught to be aware of the
reader’s expectation about their works, so that they can learn to do self-assessment. As
Hedgcock & Lefkowitz (1994) cited by Mahfoodh (2011) argued that teacher written
feedback raises student writers’ awareness of the reader’s expectations.
The third advantage of written teacher feedback is that it can serve as a means of
communication between the teacher and the students. When there are comments and symbols
which are used for giving feedback by the teacher, there is also communication between the
teacher and the students, for example: when the teacher says that there should be some
changing in some parts of the writing, then it can serves as the media or the communication
tool for the teacher to the students, as the following extract cited by Bailey and Garner (2010)
which emphasized about the formative and developmental role of feedback:
It is learning, a learning tool. It is about the growth of individual skills and knowledge. But it is
also about communication; about shaping expectations and about a reflection on the quality of
what has been submitted. (p.5)
Teachers and students agree that despite the time-consuming nature of providing written
feedback, teacher written feedback is both helpful and desirable (Ferris, 2003; Goldstein,
6
2004; Lee & Schallert, 2008) cited by Mahfoodh (2011) because it is considered to be the
best way for communication with each student on a one-to-one basis.
In relation to the advantages of written teacher feedback, it is reported that there are
two basic different kinds of strategies in giving feedback for the teacher, that are: direct and
indirect strategies of giving feedback. Direct and indirect strategies are different in the way of
giving feedback. Bitchener cited in Mi-mi (2009) stated that “teachers do not need to correct
every mistake students make, but rather, combine direct and indirect strategies” (Bitchener, et
al., 2005, p.1). Direct feedback means when the teacher gives feedback to the students with
the correction of the errors and indirect feedback is when the teacher only indicates where the
students’ errors are without giving the correction of them. Otherwise, as Hyland (1990) cited
in Mi-mi (2009, p.2) stated that indirect strategy suggests “minimal marking” by using
correction codes, that is, the teacher points to the exact location of an error, and the type of
error involved.
In brief, basically, there are three advantages of written teacher feedback in Writing
class, that are: written teacher feedback can give improvements in writing for the students,
written teacher feedback can be used to do self-evaluation for the students, and written
teacher feedback serves as a communication between the teacher and the students.
THE STUDY
The study was conducted to know the Academic Writing students’ perceptions toward
written teacher feedback by using semi-structured interview. When doing the interview I also
added some additional questions based on what the participants say about the study. Each
interview took around 20-30 minutes. The interview was recorded. The data collection lasted
approximately 1 week. See appendix 1 for the interview questions.
7
RESEARCH QUESTION
The study was conducted to know ‘What are the Academic Writing students’ perceptions
toward written teacher feedback on their first draft?’
CONTEXT OF THE STUDY AND THE PARTICIPANTS
The study was conducted in an English Language Teaching program in a private
university in Salatiga. There were fourteen Academic Writing students who participated in
this study. Six students were from year 2009 and eight students were from year 2010 and the
total was 14 students. Academic Writing is the course to be taken before taking Proposal and
Report Writing and then Thesis. From the Academic Writing class, the students are expected
to be able to write academically with the rules set. All participants in this study were selected
using purposive sampling technique. Purposive sampling technique is when we select the
participants purposefully or select a group of people that can meet certain criteria
(Blackledge, 2001, p.57).
The participants were those who were taking Academic Writing class because they have
known the basic rules of writing in their previous semesters so that they must have been more
familiar with teacher feedback. Hence, it is not difficult for them to give their perceptions
which include their judgments toward their written teacher feedback.
DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE
The data were collected through several interviews with 14 Academic Writing students in the
University. In order to make it easier for the participants in answering and revealing their
8
opinion about the questions given, I used semi structured interview. When I did the interview,
I also made up some questions based on what the participants say about the study. After I got
the data, I made the name of the participants as pseudonym.
DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES
After getting the data from the interview, it was transcribed using clean transcription
as the focus was on the content of the interview (Elliot, 2005). The present study was
designed to determine the Academic Writing students’ perceptions toward written teacher
feedback on their draft. After I got the data, I analyzed it using categorical content analysis.
Based on Lieblich (1998), categorical content is a way of analyzing the data by focusing on
the contents or themes across the participants. From the 14 participants who have been
interviewed, some emerging themes were found from the analysis process.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This study set out to determine the Academic Writing students’ perceptions
toward written teacher feedback on their first draft. The results of this study show that most
of the Academic Writing students needed written teacher feedback in their first draft for
revision. There are four themes that come out based on the data analysis, that are: “Aspects of
difficulties that the students found in their first draft revision”, “Students’ expectations of the
teacher comments”, “Students’ responses toward the teacher comments on their first draft”,
“Student’ perceptions about a good teacher feedback”. Basically, there are five teacher
correction aspects in the writing that are: format, mechanics, content and organization,
9
grammar, and vocabulary choice. These five aspects will be important information for the
data analysis.
Aspects of difficulties that the students found in their first draft revision
The data showed that the teachers mostly gave comments in the content and organization
aspect and in the format aspect. In addition, the student found the difficulties mostly also in
those two aspects as shown in the chart below.
Chart 1. Aspects of difficulties that the students found in their
first draft revision
All of the students as much as fourteen students (100%) in the study in direct and
indirect manner said that they found difficulties in revising their first draft. There are six
students (29%) that found difficulties in the format aspect. The problem is in the referencing,
following the APA format, and in the quotation. Seven students (32%) found difficulties in
the content and organization aspect. The problem is in arranging the ideas and argument. One
student (5%) found difficulties in the grammar aspect, and the other two students (10%)
10
found difficulties in the vocabulary choice aspect. While the ‘?’ symbol represents that the
difficulties mentioned by the students do not belong to any of the aspects that I focused on.
Below are some unedited quotations from the interviewees about the aspects of difficulties
that they faced in their first draft revision, whether it is in the format aspect, mechanics
aspect, content and organization, grammar, or vocabulary choice aspect.
Quotation 1 (unedited)
“Sometimes the difficulties for this Academic Writing class is because we just
had to know about citation. So we are confused, we are often confused how to
apply those APA format to our writing.”
Yanti (a pseudonym)
Quotation 2 (unedited)
“Many mistakes, also not focus, the argument is not correct yet, and also there
are some source which is forgotten of being inserted.”
Fenny (a pseudonym)
Quotation 3 (unedited)
“The mistakes lies in the arrangement of the argument, and arranging ideas
and lack of examples to support my argument.”
Lea (a pseudonym)
11
Quotation 4 (unedited)
“Many of the difficulties is also actually in the source. Sometimes the sources
and the APA format. Sometimes, oh yes this is paraphrase, oh yes this is
quotation, but how actually to apply these in a correct way? Something like
that. So, if we want to put anything we don’t feel confident because we are
afraid that it is not appropriate.”
Santi (a pseudonym)
From the quotations above, it is clear that many of the Academic Writing students find
difficulties in their first draft revision mostly in the content and organization, and in the
format aspect. This is similar to the result of the study conducted by Telçeker and Akcan
(n.d., p.12). They noted that “in general, students have difficulty elaborating points in a body
paragraph and relating them to the flow of ideas in an essay”.
Students’ expectations of the teacher comments
This chart provide a sight to what students actually expect from their teacher comments,
especially in what aspects they really paid attention to from their teacher comments.
12
Chart 2. Students’ expectations of the teacher comments
expectation to be given comment in what aspects?
In his study, Mahfoodh (2011, p.6) stated that “EFL student participants perceived that their
teachers should provide written feedback on all aspects of their essays: content, organization,
vocabulary and mechanic, but the students sometimes believed that their teachers should
focus on mechanic problems and vocabulary usage more than other aspects.” In contrast, the
result of this study showed different result that is students do not really need feedback on the
mechanics and vocabulary choice aspects. As many as seven out of fourteen students
expected to get the written teacher feedback in content and organization aspects. Four
students needed feedback in the format aspect. One student needed feedback in the mechanics
aspect. One other needed feedback in the grammar aspect. Two other students needed
feedback in the vocabulary choice aspect. Thus, it can be viewed that students needed their
written teacher feedback in all of the five aspects of the writing, especially in the content and
organization, and format aspects.
Students’ perceptions about the teacher comments on their first draft
13
Differ from the students’ expectation of the teacher comments which indicates how the
students want their teacher to give the comment, especially in what aspects, this section is
talking about the students’ perception or the way they judge or evaluate their teacher
feedback or what their responses are towards the teacher comments as can be shown in Table
3.
Aspect of teacher comments that Students’ Positive Responses
Students’ Negative Responses
the students get
1. Format
16 (64%)
9 (36%)
2. Mechanics
18 (75%)
6 (25%)
3. Content and organization
16 (72.7%)
6 (27.3%)
4. Grammar
15 (71.4%)
6 (28.6%)
5. Vocabulary choice
19 (76%)
6 (24%)
TOTAL
84 (72%)
33 (28%)
Table 3. Students’ responses toward the teacher comments on
their first draft
Most of the students give positive reactions toward their teacher comments in the first draft.
There are 84 positive reactions and 33 negative reactions from the total of 117 reactions
about the students toward the teacher comments on their first draft. For the format aspect, the
data shows 16 (64%) positive reactions and 9 (36%) negative reactions out of 30 responds to
the teacher comments. For the mechanics aspect, there are 18 (75%) positive reactions and 6
(25%) negative reactions out of 26 responds. In the content and organization aspect, there are
16 (72.7%) positive reactions and 6 (27.3%) negative reactions out of 38 responds. In the
14
grammar aspect, there are 15 (72%) positive reactions and 6 (28.6%) negative reactions out
of 18 responds. And in the vocabulary choice, there are 19 (76%) positive responds and 6
(24%) negative responds out of 29 responds.
In addition, the data result shows the most useful feedback in students’ opinion by asking
them directly about which comment that is the most useful for them. Ten students out of 14
said that the most useful part of their teacher feedback is on the content and organization
aspect. One of them said the most useful feedback is in the format aspect only. The additional
information about this data is that 4 students stated that format aspect is the most useful along
with the other aspect. Moreover, 4 students said the vocabulary aspect is the most useful
along with the other aspect. The other two students said that all of the aspects are useful.
Below are some of the quotations from the interviewees that show her positive and negative
reactions toward written teacher feedback in their first draft and also the one that show there
is no most useful teacher feedback, which means that all of the aspects are important.
Quotation 1 (unedited)
“With this feedback I can do self introspection over again and read the correct
format citation from the APA.”
Bayu (a pseudonym)
Quotation 2 (unedited)
“Yes, it is necessary because in Writing is not about the content but the
punctuation is also needed so it can makes it easy to read.
15
Rina (a pseudonym)
Quotation 3 (unedited)
“If talking about feeling, actually I feel depress. So, why is this is wrong and
….”
Rina (a pseudonym)
Quotation 4 (unedited)
“Even without teacher I could probably fix it myself.”
Bayu (a pseudonym)
Quotation 5 (unedited)
“All of them are useful. None of them is the most important. Everything is
really the most useful.”
Lea (a pseudonym)
The data shows that students gave more positive responds than negative responds to their
teacher comments in their first draft. Therefore, it can be assured that students liked teacher
written feedback, especially in the content and organization aspect.
Student’ belief about a good teacher feedback
16
The last thing to be considered about in this study is how the students perceive a good teacher
feedback as can be shown in the Table 4.
A good teacher feedback
Percentage
Not only state or show where the location of the 10 students (71%)
error is, but also give the explanation of how the
correction should be.
Long teacher comments
9 students (64%)
Table 4. Students’ belief about a good teacher feedback
From the data analysis, it is clear that more than half of the students, that is 10 students out of
14 students saw a good teacher feedback as feedback in which the teacher not only showed
the location of the error was, but also gave the solution. Besides, most of the students said
that they prefer to get long teacher comments than the short one. However, one of them said
that she prefer to get short written teacher feedback than the long one. One other needed both
short and long teacher feedback. One other needed feedback that was neither short nor very
long feedback. The last two students said that it was not the matter of short or long feedback,
but the important point was that it needed to be exactly straight to the point and clear. Below
are some quotations from the interviewees about their preferences toward the long teacher
comments than the short one.
Quotation 1 (unedited)
“I prefer the long comment because the long comment is clearer how the rest
should be. The comment will be very helpful to know what we have to do in
the final draft.”
17
Yanti (a pseudonym)
Quotation 2 (unedited)
“I prefer the long comment, because when she give long comment it means
that she is careful and read my essay.”
Rina (a pseudonym)
Quotation 3 (unedited)
“I prefer the long comment. Because the long comment is usually more detail
and clear. So, we are already know the errors until the detail like that.”
Eko (a pseudonym)
Quotation 4 (unedited)
“Actually, the short or long comment depends on the writing, but more to the
long one because in the long comment usually the comment is clearer because
long comment is usually followed by the explanation.”
Galih (a pseudonym)
From the first theme about the aspects of difficulties that the students found in their first draft
and the second theme about student’ expectation of the teacher comments which shows in
18
what aspects the students need the feedback mostly, it can be shown there is a relation
between them where the students shows similarity in the aspect of difficulties that they found
in their first draft revision, which mostly is in the content and organization and in the format
aspect, and their expectations of the teacher comments is mostly also in the content and
organization and in the format aspect. For the mechanics, grammar, and vocabulary choice
aspects, the result also shown the same pattern, which indicated that they did not really find
difficulties in those three aspects in their first draft revision. In addition, below are some of
the quotations from the interviewees that showed the students’ perceptions toward a good
teacher feedback.
Quotation 1 (unedited)
“Don’t just state that it is incorrect, but can give how the correction should
be.”
Rina (a pseudonym)
Quotation 2 (unedited)
“Not only underline it, but also give what the correct revision is.”
Mita (a pseudonym)
Therefore, the students’ perceptions toward a good teacher feedback were the feedbacks that
not only show the error, but also the solution. In addition, most of them prefer to get long
19
teacher comments than the short one because long comments were more helpful, more detail
and clearer.
CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION
The purpose of the study is to find the Academic Writing students’ perceptions
toward teacher written feedback on their first draft in the English Department of Satya
Wacana Christian University. This study find four major themes. They are: “Aspects of
difficulties that the students found in their first draft revision”, “Students’ expectation of the
teacher comments”, “Students’ reactions toward the teacher comments on their first draft”,
“Student’ perceptions toward a good teacher feedback”.
The first theme discuss about students’ feeling toward their first draft revision. Many
of the Academic Writing students find difficulties in revising their first draft, mostly in the
content and organization, and in the format aspect. The second theme discuss about the
students’ expectation of the teacher comments. All of the Academic Writing students in the
English Department of Satya Wacana state that they expect to get written teacher feedback.
Most of them as many as seven out of 14 (50%) students expect to get the written teacher
feedback in the content and organization aspects. The third theme is about teacher comments
on students’ first draft. Most of the students give positive reactions toward their teacher
comments in the first draft. Almost all of the students state that they find teacher feedback in
the content and organization aspect is the most useful for them. Therefore, it can be assured
that students like teacher written feedback, especially in the content and organization aspect.
The last theme discussed about students’ perceptions toward a good teacher feedback. The
result from the data shows that the students’ perceptions toward a good teacher feedback are
feedbacks that not only show the error, but also the correct revision. From the result of the
data, this study comes to a conclusion that Academic Writing students have positive
20
perceptions toward their teacher written feedback. They find it useful, especially in the
content and organization aspect. They also need more feedback in the content and
organization, and format aspects in their first draft. Moreover, they prefer to get long teacher
comments than the short one because long comment is more helpful, more detail and clearer.
It is hoped that this study can be a basis for other research on the same scope of the study.
Furthermore, it can be useful for teachers to know the students’ needs of their written
feedback in writing.
21
REFERENCES
Adediwura, A. A., Tayo, B. (2007, Mei). Perception of teachers’ knowledge, attitude and
teaching skills as predictor of academic performance in Nigerian secondary schools.
Educational Research and Review Vol. 2 (7), pp. 165-171, July 2007. Retrieved
August 3, 2012, from www.academicjournals.org
An evaluation of the quality of teacher feedback to students: A study of numeracy teaching in
the primary education sector. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from www.aare.edu.au
Bailey, R., Garner, M. (2010, April). Is the feedback in higher education assessment worth
the paper it is written on? Teachers’ reflections on their practices. Retrieved February
5, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Blackledge A. (2001). Complex positioning: Women negotiating identity and power in a
minority urban setting. In a Pavlenko, A. Blackledge, I. Piller & M. Teutsch-Dwyer
(Eds.), Multilingualism, second language learning, and gender. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.
Elliott, J. (2005). Using narrative in social research: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches. London: Sage.
Ellis, R. (2007, December). A typology of written corrective feedback types. Retrieved
February 7, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Ferguson, P. (2011, January). Student perceptions of quality feedback in teacher education.
Retrieved February 5, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Lee. I. (2007, August). Ten mismatches between teachers’ beliefs and written feedback
practice. Retrieved February 7, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Lieblich, A., Tuval-Maschiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research: Reading, analysis
and interpretation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
22
Magno, C., Amarles, M. A. (2011, January). Teachers’ Feedback Practices in Second
Language Academic Writing Classrooms. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from
http://tijepa.books.officelive.com
Mahfoodh, Mr. O, H, A. (2011, September). A Qualitative Case Study of EFL Students’
Affective Reactions to and Perceptions of Their Teachers’ Written Feedback.
Retrieved February 5, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Mi-mi, L. (2009, January). Adopting varied feedback modes in the EFL writing class.
Volume 7, No.1 (Serial No.64). Retrieved Ferbruary 7, 2012, from
search.ebscohost.com
Nordin, S. Md., Halib, M., Ghazali, Z., Mahari, R. M. A. (2010). Error Correction and
Students’ Perception on Teachers’ Written Feedback: An Exploratory Study on L2
Learners in a Malaysian University. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from
search.ebscohost.com
Storch, N. (2010, July 29). Critical Feedback on Written Corrective Feedback Research.
Retrieved February 5, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Telçeker, H., Akcan, S. (n.d). The Effect of Oral and Written Teacher Feedback on Students’
Revisions in a Process-Oriented EFL Writing Class. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from
search.ebscohost.com
Williams, J. G. (2003, October). Providing Feedback on ESL Students' Written Assignments.
Retrieved Januray 29, 2012 from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Williams-Feedback.html
23
APPENDIX A
This is the list of questions that is used in the interview process to collect the data from the
participants.
1.
Apa pendapatmu tentang‘Writing’? Apa yang kamu rasakan ketika kamu disuruh
menulis tentang sesuatu seperti essay atau tugas yang lainnya (di kelasmu)?
2. Di kelas Academic Writingmu, apa pendapatmu tentang revisi first draftmu (bisa
termasuk prosesnya)? Atau apa yang kamu pikir atau rasakan ketika kamu me-revisi
first draftmu? Apakah ada kesulitan yang kamu hadapi?
Jika kamu menemukan/menghadapi kesulitan -> Kesulitan macam apa yang kamu
temukan/hadapi? Bagaimana (cara) kamu mengatasinya?
3. Apa kamu tahu apakah ‘feedback’ itu? Apa pendapatmu tentang feedback?
4. a. Apa pendapatmu tentang feedback tertulis dosenmu, terutama commentnya?
Apakah kamu memerlukannya/tidak? Mengapa?
b. Apa yang kamu harapkan dari feedback tertulis dosen Academic Writingmu?
Apakah harapanmu tersebut terpenuhi setelah kamu mendapatkan comment dari
dosenmu? Jika iya, terpenuhi dalam hal apa? Jika tidak, mengapa tidak terpenuhi?
5.
Bagaimana pendapatmu tentang comment dosen yang baik/bagus/berguna itu? Atau
menurutmu bagaimana sebaiknya comment dosen yang baik/bagus/berguna itu?
6.
Comment seperti apa saja yang kamu dapatkan dari dosen di kelas Academic
Writingmu? Atau comment seperti apa saja yang diberikan oleh dosen di kelas
24
Academic Writingmu? Di bagian mana/ tentang apa? Bisakah tolong disebutkan
dan jelaskan?
Apa pendapatmu / apa yang kamu rasakan dari comment-comment tersebut?
Mengapa? adakah comment-comment lain yang sebenarnya kamu perlukan /
penting untukmu? Mengapa? (sambil melihat first draft)
7.
Comment dosen yang seperti apa yang paling berguna bagimu? (dari diskusi di atas)
8.
Mana yang lebih kamu pilih/kamu suka, comment dosen yang pendek/panjang?
Mengapa?
9.
Apa kamu setuju/tidak setuju dengan seluruh comment yang diberikan dosenmu?
Mengapa? Apa yang kamu lakukan jika kamu setuju/tidak setuju dengan seluruh
comment itu?
10. Apa yang kamu lakukan setelah mendapat comment dosen? Jika kamu tidak
mengabaikannya, apa yang kamu lakukan kemudian? Apa kamu menggunakannya
untuk merevisi first draftmu? Bagaimana kamu menggunakan comment-comment itu
untuk merevisi first draftmu?
11. Menurutmu perlu/tidak comment dosenmu di bagian yang salah? Mengapa?
12. Apakah kamu menginginkan comment dosenmu di bagian yang salah saja
(mengkoreksi kesalahan) / di bagian yang benar saja (memuji bagian yang sudah kau
tulis dengan benar) / di bagian yang salah maupun benar? Mengapa?
13. Setelah diskusi ini, saya ingin mengetahui sekali lagi, apa pendapatmu tentang
comment dosen yang menurutmu baik/bagus/berguna?
25
14. Apakah ada yang ingin kamu tambahkan / comment / membenarkan (meralat) apa
yang sudah kamu katakan tentang apa yang sudah kita bahas?
15. Terakhir, jika kamu dapat memberi sebuah pesan kepada dosenmu tentang
commentnya, kamu akan memberi pesan tentang apa? Atau apa yang akan kamu
katakan? Ada saran untuknya?
ACADEMIC WRITING STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD WRITTEN TEACHER
FEEDBACK ON THEIR FIRST DRAFT
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
CHRISTINA NATALIA SUTRESNO
(112008001)
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
ii
iii
iv
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
For the very first time I would like to thank Jesus, my wonderful Lord. I know
only by Your grace that I can finally finish this thesis. Thank you so much Jesus, my
everything. I am also thankful for my family who always support me to do the best and
always there for me and my brothers in every condition and pray for me every day.
Moreover, I would like to thank to my supervisor and my second reader, Bu Victoria Usadya
and Bu Martha Nandari who help me finish this thesis. Furthermore, thank you for Miss
Kalaly who is very kind to me and allowed me to do the research in her class and also thank
you for Academic Writing students who are willing to help me by accepting to be
interviewed. Thank you very much for your time. Finally, I would like to thank to all of my
friends since my childhood till now, I miss you and I love you all.
1
ACADEMIC WRITING STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD WRITTEN
TEACHER FEEDBACK ON THEIR FIRST DRAFT
Christina Natalia Sutresno
ABSTRACT
This study explored Academic Writing students’ perceptions toward written teacher
feedback on their first draft in the English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University.
The data were collected from interviews with 14 Academic Writing students of the English
Department in a private university in Central Java. The kind of interview that was used in this
study is semi-structured interview. This study resulted in four major themes. The first theme
was about the students’ feeling toward their first draft revision. The second theme was about
students’ expectation of the teacher comments. The third theme discussed about teacher
comment on students’ first draft and the last theme was about the students’ perceptions
toward a good teacher feedback. Finally, from the data, the study came to a conclusion that
Academic Writing students had positive perceptions toward their teacher written feedback.
They found it useful, especially in the content and organization aspect. The result of this
study can be used for Academic Writing teacher to know what kind of feedback the students
really need.
Keywords: perception, feedback
INTRODUCTION
Writing classes are required classes which have to be taken by the students of the Faculty of
Language and Literature. Basically, writing classes are divided into four levels of classes that
are Guided Writing, Narrative & Descriptive Writing, Expository & Argumentative Writing,
and Academic Writing. In all of these classes, the students are asked to make papers and the
process of making them is step by step from the first draft to the second draft and finally to
the final draft or the final product of their works. In the first and second draft, the students are
given feedback from the teacher and their friends and the feedback can be useful for them to
revise their draft because the teacher feedback can help the students know where the errors of
their writing are. Feedback, as viewed by Furnborough and Truman (2009) cited in Magno,
and Amarles (2011) entails the existence of gaps between what has been learned and the
target competence of the learners, and the efforts undertaken to bridge these gaps. It means
2
that feedback should help the students to reach the expected target competence. In addition,
Ferris said that feedback also comes in various linguistic forms, it may be in questions,
statements, imperatives, or exclamations, and comments can be softened through the use of a
variety of hedging devices (Ferris, 1997). Moreover, Furnborough and Truman (2009) also
added that this feedback is provided to ask for further information, to give directions,
suggestions, or requests for revision, to give students new information that will help them
revise, and to give positive feedback about what the students have done well (Ferris, 1997).
However, the validity of whether teacher feedback gives effects to the students’ writing
development is still doubtful. As what is cited in Ellis (2007) as a recent review of feedback
on L2 students’ writing, Hyland and Hyland noted that “while feedback is a central aspect of
L2 writing programs across the world, the research literature has not been equivocally
positive about its role in L2 development, and teachers often have a sense they are not
making use of its full potential.” (p. 83). Therefore, in this study, I would like to know the
Academic Writing students’ perceptions toward written teacher feedback on their first draft.
There are a study that have attempted to explain that although there is research that
show students value teacher feedback and find it useful to help them improve their writing
(Leki 1991), negative effects of teacher feedback have been reported in the literature, such as
frustration
and
confusion
(Mantello
1997),
and
student
under-achievement
and
underexpectation through unfocused marking (OFSTED 1996). Student under-achievement
and underexpectation means the student’s work cannot fulfill the predetermined criteria of a
good writing. Since some believe that written teacher feedback is given to help students in
making their writing better, we need to know where the most important aspects of written
teacher feedback given are, whether it is on the format aspect, mechanic aspect, content and
organization, grammar, or vocabulary choice aspect. Recent evidence suggests that since
teacher responses to student writing are expected to help students develop their ideas fully
3
and present them effectively, feedback needs to cover all aspects of students’ written texts,
including issues of content, organization, style, grammar, and mechanics (Magno, and
Amarles ,2011). In addition, in Magno, and Amarles (2011), it is also cited that Ferris,
Pezone, Tade, and Tinti (1997) concluded that teachers’ feedback goes beyond whether a
teacher responds to “content” or “form”. Therefore, I want to know how the students see the
focus of the teacher’s feedback. Some experts, like Fathman and Walley (1990), as well as
Fregeau in Williams (2003) reported that teacher feedback on content in the form of teacher
comments is often vague, contradictory, unsystematic and inconsistent. Fregeau said that this
leads to various reactions by students including confusion, frustration and neglect of the
comments.
This study is narrowed down for the Academic Writing students in this University
only. It is hoped that this study can give benefit to the teacher to know what kind of feedback
that the students really need.
LITERATURE REVIEW
One of the important keywords for this study is ‘perception’. Allport (1966) defines
‘perception’ as the way we judge or evaluate others. Hence, students’ perception in this study
can be viewed as their judgements or evaluation of their written teacher feedback. The other
important keyword is ‘feedback’. According to Ramaprasad (1983), “feedback is information
about the gap between the actual level and the reference level of a system parameter which is
used to alter the gap in some way” (p.4). In education this means the learner has to “possess a
concept of the standard (or goal or reference level) being aimed for, compare the actual (or
current) level of performance with the standard and engage in appropriate action which leads
to closure of the gap” (Sadler, 1989). Moreover, Carlson stated that feedback is “authoritative
4
information students receive that will reinforce or modify responses to instruction and guide
them more efficiently in attaining the goals of the course”.
The early research in Critical Feedback on Written Corrective Feedback Research by
Storch (2010) indicated that there are two kinds of focuses in feedback: 1. Feedback which
focus on some range of issues or content; and 2. Feedback which focus on language use,
termed written corrective feedback (WCF).
WCF itself is divided into two parts. The
distinction between types of WCF was mainly between direct and indirect WCF. In (Storch,
2010), Ferris stated that direct WCF refers to the provision of the correct linguistic form or
structure by the teacher, and indirect WCF refers to feedback which simply indicates to the
writer that an error has been made, usually via a symbol or an abbreviation (e.g. ‘vb’
representing an error in the use of verbs).
Many historians have argued about the students’ response and preference toward
written teacher feedback. Surveys such as conducted by Nordin, Halib, Ghazali, and Mahari
(2010) suggested some quotation from some experts. Firstly, Hyland (2003b: 179) cited in
Nordin et al. (2010) noted that students prefer comments on the content and organization in
their earlier drafts. Other studies, however, showed different findings. Secondly, Fathman and
Walley (1990) also cited in Nordin et al. (2010) for instance, indicated that learners show
significant improvement if comments on both grammar and content are given at the same
time. The last quotation is the study on teacher response patterns by Ashwell (2000) cited in
Nordin et al. (2010). It concluded that it does not matter to learners in which order they
received the form or content feedback.
Furthermore, teacher written feedback is believed to have several benefits for the
writing students. The first benefit is that it can give improvements for the students in writing.
The study conducted by Patthey-Chavez and Ferris (1997) in Telçeker (n.d., p.3) stated that
“In cases where oral conferences are successful, they not only lead to revisions in the drafting
5
process, but also have subsequent effects on the improvement of the writing ability in later
assignments.”
The second advantage of written teacher feedback is that it can be used to do selfevaluation for Writing students. The students will be more aware of where their mistakes in
writing are if they are given written teacher feedback because it can indicate where the errors
are located on. After that they can start to evaluate the words that should be added, deleted or
changed in their writing. As (Case, 2007) cited in Ferguson (2011, p.2) : “Assessment
feedback is vital for promoting learning and motivating students to improve by facilitating
reflection and self-evaluation, as well as highlighting errors, deficiencies and problems”.
After the students know where their mistakes are, they can also be taught to be aware of the
reader’s expectation about their works, so that they can learn to do self-assessment. As
Hedgcock & Lefkowitz (1994) cited by Mahfoodh (2011) argued that teacher written
feedback raises student writers’ awareness of the reader’s expectations.
The third advantage of written teacher feedback is that it can serve as a means of
communication between the teacher and the students. When there are comments and symbols
which are used for giving feedback by the teacher, there is also communication between the
teacher and the students, for example: when the teacher says that there should be some
changing in some parts of the writing, then it can serves as the media or the communication
tool for the teacher to the students, as the following extract cited by Bailey and Garner (2010)
which emphasized about the formative and developmental role of feedback:
It is learning, a learning tool. It is about the growth of individual skills and knowledge. But it is
also about communication; about shaping expectations and about a reflection on the quality of
what has been submitted. (p.5)
Teachers and students agree that despite the time-consuming nature of providing written
feedback, teacher written feedback is both helpful and desirable (Ferris, 2003; Goldstein,
6
2004; Lee & Schallert, 2008) cited by Mahfoodh (2011) because it is considered to be the
best way for communication with each student on a one-to-one basis.
In relation to the advantages of written teacher feedback, it is reported that there are
two basic different kinds of strategies in giving feedback for the teacher, that are: direct and
indirect strategies of giving feedback. Direct and indirect strategies are different in the way of
giving feedback. Bitchener cited in Mi-mi (2009) stated that “teachers do not need to correct
every mistake students make, but rather, combine direct and indirect strategies” (Bitchener, et
al., 2005, p.1). Direct feedback means when the teacher gives feedback to the students with
the correction of the errors and indirect feedback is when the teacher only indicates where the
students’ errors are without giving the correction of them. Otherwise, as Hyland (1990) cited
in Mi-mi (2009, p.2) stated that indirect strategy suggests “minimal marking” by using
correction codes, that is, the teacher points to the exact location of an error, and the type of
error involved.
In brief, basically, there are three advantages of written teacher feedback in Writing
class, that are: written teacher feedback can give improvements in writing for the students,
written teacher feedback can be used to do self-evaluation for the students, and written
teacher feedback serves as a communication between the teacher and the students.
THE STUDY
The study was conducted to know the Academic Writing students’ perceptions toward
written teacher feedback by using semi-structured interview. When doing the interview I also
added some additional questions based on what the participants say about the study. Each
interview took around 20-30 minutes. The interview was recorded. The data collection lasted
approximately 1 week. See appendix 1 for the interview questions.
7
RESEARCH QUESTION
The study was conducted to know ‘What are the Academic Writing students’ perceptions
toward written teacher feedback on their first draft?’
CONTEXT OF THE STUDY AND THE PARTICIPANTS
The study was conducted in an English Language Teaching program in a private
university in Salatiga. There were fourteen Academic Writing students who participated in
this study. Six students were from year 2009 and eight students were from year 2010 and the
total was 14 students. Academic Writing is the course to be taken before taking Proposal and
Report Writing and then Thesis. From the Academic Writing class, the students are expected
to be able to write academically with the rules set. All participants in this study were selected
using purposive sampling technique. Purposive sampling technique is when we select the
participants purposefully or select a group of people that can meet certain criteria
(Blackledge, 2001, p.57).
The participants were those who were taking Academic Writing class because they have
known the basic rules of writing in their previous semesters so that they must have been more
familiar with teacher feedback. Hence, it is not difficult for them to give their perceptions
which include their judgments toward their written teacher feedback.
DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE
The data were collected through several interviews with 14 Academic Writing students in the
University. In order to make it easier for the participants in answering and revealing their
8
opinion about the questions given, I used semi structured interview. When I did the interview,
I also made up some questions based on what the participants say about the study. After I got
the data, I made the name of the participants as pseudonym.
DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURES
After getting the data from the interview, it was transcribed using clean transcription
as the focus was on the content of the interview (Elliot, 2005). The present study was
designed to determine the Academic Writing students’ perceptions toward written teacher
feedback on their draft. After I got the data, I analyzed it using categorical content analysis.
Based on Lieblich (1998), categorical content is a way of analyzing the data by focusing on
the contents or themes across the participants. From the 14 participants who have been
interviewed, some emerging themes were found from the analysis process.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This study set out to determine the Academic Writing students’ perceptions
toward written teacher feedback on their first draft. The results of this study show that most
of the Academic Writing students needed written teacher feedback in their first draft for
revision. There are four themes that come out based on the data analysis, that are: “Aspects of
difficulties that the students found in their first draft revision”, “Students’ expectations of the
teacher comments”, “Students’ responses toward the teacher comments on their first draft”,
“Student’ perceptions about a good teacher feedback”. Basically, there are five teacher
correction aspects in the writing that are: format, mechanics, content and organization,
9
grammar, and vocabulary choice. These five aspects will be important information for the
data analysis.
Aspects of difficulties that the students found in their first draft revision
The data showed that the teachers mostly gave comments in the content and organization
aspect and in the format aspect. In addition, the student found the difficulties mostly also in
those two aspects as shown in the chart below.
Chart 1. Aspects of difficulties that the students found in their
first draft revision
All of the students as much as fourteen students (100%) in the study in direct and
indirect manner said that they found difficulties in revising their first draft. There are six
students (29%) that found difficulties in the format aspect. The problem is in the referencing,
following the APA format, and in the quotation. Seven students (32%) found difficulties in
the content and organization aspect. The problem is in arranging the ideas and argument. One
student (5%) found difficulties in the grammar aspect, and the other two students (10%)
10
found difficulties in the vocabulary choice aspect. While the ‘?’ symbol represents that the
difficulties mentioned by the students do not belong to any of the aspects that I focused on.
Below are some unedited quotations from the interviewees about the aspects of difficulties
that they faced in their first draft revision, whether it is in the format aspect, mechanics
aspect, content and organization, grammar, or vocabulary choice aspect.
Quotation 1 (unedited)
“Sometimes the difficulties for this Academic Writing class is because we just
had to know about citation. So we are confused, we are often confused how to
apply those APA format to our writing.”
Yanti (a pseudonym)
Quotation 2 (unedited)
“Many mistakes, also not focus, the argument is not correct yet, and also there
are some source which is forgotten of being inserted.”
Fenny (a pseudonym)
Quotation 3 (unedited)
“The mistakes lies in the arrangement of the argument, and arranging ideas
and lack of examples to support my argument.”
Lea (a pseudonym)
11
Quotation 4 (unedited)
“Many of the difficulties is also actually in the source. Sometimes the sources
and the APA format. Sometimes, oh yes this is paraphrase, oh yes this is
quotation, but how actually to apply these in a correct way? Something like
that. So, if we want to put anything we don’t feel confident because we are
afraid that it is not appropriate.”
Santi (a pseudonym)
From the quotations above, it is clear that many of the Academic Writing students find
difficulties in their first draft revision mostly in the content and organization, and in the
format aspect. This is similar to the result of the study conducted by Telçeker and Akcan
(n.d., p.12). They noted that “in general, students have difficulty elaborating points in a body
paragraph and relating them to the flow of ideas in an essay”.
Students’ expectations of the teacher comments
This chart provide a sight to what students actually expect from their teacher comments,
especially in what aspects they really paid attention to from their teacher comments.
12
Chart 2. Students’ expectations of the teacher comments
expectation to be given comment in what aspects?
In his study, Mahfoodh (2011, p.6) stated that “EFL student participants perceived that their
teachers should provide written feedback on all aspects of their essays: content, organization,
vocabulary and mechanic, but the students sometimes believed that their teachers should
focus on mechanic problems and vocabulary usage more than other aspects.” In contrast, the
result of this study showed different result that is students do not really need feedback on the
mechanics and vocabulary choice aspects. As many as seven out of fourteen students
expected to get the written teacher feedback in content and organization aspects. Four
students needed feedback in the format aspect. One student needed feedback in the mechanics
aspect. One other needed feedback in the grammar aspect. Two other students needed
feedback in the vocabulary choice aspect. Thus, it can be viewed that students needed their
written teacher feedback in all of the five aspects of the writing, especially in the content and
organization, and format aspects.
Students’ perceptions about the teacher comments on their first draft
13
Differ from the students’ expectation of the teacher comments which indicates how the
students want their teacher to give the comment, especially in what aspects, this section is
talking about the students’ perception or the way they judge or evaluate their teacher
feedback or what their responses are towards the teacher comments as can be shown in Table
3.
Aspect of teacher comments that Students’ Positive Responses
Students’ Negative Responses
the students get
1. Format
16 (64%)
9 (36%)
2. Mechanics
18 (75%)
6 (25%)
3. Content and organization
16 (72.7%)
6 (27.3%)
4. Grammar
15 (71.4%)
6 (28.6%)
5. Vocabulary choice
19 (76%)
6 (24%)
TOTAL
84 (72%)
33 (28%)
Table 3. Students’ responses toward the teacher comments on
their first draft
Most of the students give positive reactions toward their teacher comments in the first draft.
There are 84 positive reactions and 33 negative reactions from the total of 117 reactions
about the students toward the teacher comments on their first draft. For the format aspect, the
data shows 16 (64%) positive reactions and 9 (36%) negative reactions out of 30 responds to
the teacher comments. For the mechanics aspect, there are 18 (75%) positive reactions and 6
(25%) negative reactions out of 26 responds. In the content and organization aspect, there are
16 (72.7%) positive reactions and 6 (27.3%) negative reactions out of 38 responds. In the
14
grammar aspect, there are 15 (72%) positive reactions and 6 (28.6%) negative reactions out
of 18 responds. And in the vocabulary choice, there are 19 (76%) positive responds and 6
(24%) negative responds out of 29 responds.
In addition, the data result shows the most useful feedback in students’ opinion by asking
them directly about which comment that is the most useful for them. Ten students out of 14
said that the most useful part of their teacher feedback is on the content and organization
aspect. One of them said the most useful feedback is in the format aspect only. The additional
information about this data is that 4 students stated that format aspect is the most useful along
with the other aspect. Moreover, 4 students said the vocabulary aspect is the most useful
along with the other aspect. The other two students said that all of the aspects are useful.
Below are some of the quotations from the interviewees that show her positive and negative
reactions toward written teacher feedback in their first draft and also the one that show there
is no most useful teacher feedback, which means that all of the aspects are important.
Quotation 1 (unedited)
“With this feedback I can do self introspection over again and read the correct
format citation from the APA.”
Bayu (a pseudonym)
Quotation 2 (unedited)
“Yes, it is necessary because in Writing is not about the content but the
punctuation is also needed so it can makes it easy to read.
15
Rina (a pseudonym)
Quotation 3 (unedited)
“If talking about feeling, actually I feel depress. So, why is this is wrong and
….”
Rina (a pseudonym)
Quotation 4 (unedited)
“Even without teacher I could probably fix it myself.”
Bayu (a pseudonym)
Quotation 5 (unedited)
“All of them are useful. None of them is the most important. Everything is
really the most useful.”
Lea (a pseudonym)
The data shows that students gave more positive responds than negative responds to their
teacher comments in their first draft. Therefore, it can be assured that students liked teacher
written feedback, especially in the content and organization aspect.
Student’ belief about a good teacher feedback
16
The last thing to be considered about in this study is how the students perceive a good teacher
feedback as can be shown in the Table 4.
A good teacher feedback
Percentage
Not only state or show where the location of the 10 students (71%)
error is, but also give the explanation of how the
correction should be.
Long teacher comments
9 students (64%)
Table 4. Students’ belief about a good teacher feedback
From the data analysis, it is clear that more than half of the students, that is 10 students out of
14 students saw a good teacher feedback as feedback in which the teacher not only showed
the location of the error was, but also gave the solution. Besides, most of the students said
that they prefer to get long teacher comments than the short one. However, one of them said
that she prefer to get short written teacher feedback than the long one. One other needed both
short and long teacher feedback. One other needed feedback that was neither short nor very
long feedback. The last two students said that it was not the matter of short or long feedback,
but the important point was that it needed to be exactly straight to the point and clear. Below
are some quotations from the interviewees about their preferences toward the long teacher
comments than the short one.
Quotation 1 (unedited)
“I prefer the long comment because the long comment is clearer how the rest
should be. The comment will be very helpful to know what we have to do in
the final draft.”
17
Yanti (a pseudonym)
Quotation 2 (unedited)
“I prefer the long comment, because when she give long comment it means
that she is careful and read my essay.”
Rina (a pseudonym)
Quotation 3 (unedited)
“I prefer the long comment. Because the long comment is usually more detail
and clear. So, we are already know the errors until the detail like that.”
Eko (a pseudonym)
Quotation 4 (unedited)
“Actually, the short or long comment depends on the writing, but more to the
long one because in the long comment usually the comment is clearer because
long comment is usually followed by the explanation.”
Galih (a pseudonym)
From the first theme about the aspects of difficulties that the students found in their first draft
and the second theme about student’ expectation of the teacher comments which shows in
18
what aspects the students need the feedback mostly, it can be shown there is a relation
between them where the students shows similarity in the aspect of difficulties that they found
in their first draft revision, which mostly is in the content and organization and in the format
aspect, and their expectations of the teacher comments is mostly also in the content and
organization and in the format aspect. For the mechanics, grammar, and vocabulary choice
aspects, the result also shown the same pattern, which indicated that they did not really find
difficulties in those three aspects in their first draft revision. In addition, below are some of
the quotations from the interviewees that showed the students’ perceptions toward a good
teacher feedback.
Quotation 1 (unedited)
“Don’t just state that it is incorrect, but can give how the correction should
be.”
Rina (a pseudonym)
Quotation 2 (unedited)
“Not only underline it, but also give what the correct revision is.”
Mita (a pseudonym)
Therefore, the students’ perceptions toward a good teacher feedback were the feedbacks that
not only show the error, but also the solution. In addition, most of them prefer to get long
19
teacher comments than the short one because long comments were more helpful, more detail
and clearer.
CONCLUSION AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATION
The purpose of the study is to find the Academic Writing students’ perceptions
toward teacher written feedback on their first draft in the English Department of Satya
Wacana Christian University. This study find four major themes. They are: “Aspects of
difficulties that the students found in their first draft revision”, “Students’ expectation of the
teacher comments”, “Students’ reactions toward the teacher comments on their first draft”,
“Student’ perceptions toward a good teacher feedback”.
The first theme discuss about students’ feeling toward their first draft revision. Many
of the Academic Writing students find difficulties in revising their first draft, mostly in the
content and organization, and in the format aspect. The second theme discuss about the
students’ expectation of the teacher comments. All of the Academic Writing students in the
English Department of Satya Wacana state that they expect to get written teacher feedback.
Most of them as many as seven out of 14 (50%) students expect to get the written teacher
feedback in the content and organization aspects. The third theme is about teacher comments
on students’ first draft. Most of the students give positive reactions toward their teacher
comments in the first draft. Almost all of the students state that they find teacher feedback in
the content and organization aspect is the most useful for them. Therefore, it can be assured
that students like teacher written feedback, especially in the content and organization aspect.
The last theme discussed about students’ perceptions toward a good teacher feedback. The
result from the data shows that the students’ perceptions toward a good teacher feedback are
feedbacks that not only show the error, but also the correct revision. From the result of the
data, this study comes to a conclusion that Academic Writing students have positive
20
perceptions toward their teacher written feedback. They find it useful, especially in the
content and organization aspect. They also need more feedback in the content and
organization, and format aspects in their first draft. Moreover, they prefer to get long teacher
comments than the short one because long comment is more helpful, more detail and clearer.
It is hoped that this study can be a basis for other research on the same scope of the study.
Furthermore, it can be useful for teachers to know the students’ needs of their written
feedback in writing.
21
REFERENCES
Adediwura, A. A., Tayo, B. (2007, Mei). Perception of teachers’ knowledge, attitude and
teaching skills as predictor of academic performance in Nigerian secondary schools.
Educational Research and Review Vol. 2 (7), pp. 165-171, July 2007. Retrieved
August 3, 2012, from www.academicjournals.org
An evaluation of the quality of teacher feedback to students: A study of numeracy teaching in
the primary education sector. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from www.aare.edu.au
Bailey, R., Garner, M. (2010, April). Is the feedback in higher education assessment worth
the paper it is written on? Teachers’ reflections on their practices. Retrieved February
5, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Blackledge A. (2001). Complex positioning: Women negotiating identity and power in a
minority urban setting. In a Pavlenko, A. Blackledge, I. Piller & M. Teutsch-Dwyer
(Eds.), Multilingualism, second language learning, and gender. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter.
Elliott, J. (2005). Using narrative in social research: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches. London: Sage.
Ellis, R. (2007, December). A typology of written corrective feedback types. Retrieved
February 7, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Ferguson, P. (2011, January). Student perceptions of quality feedback in teacher education.
Retrieved February 5, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Lee. I. (2007, August). Ten mismatches between teachers’ beliefs and written feedback
practice. Retrieved February 7, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Lieblich, A., Tuval-Maschiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research: Reading, analysis
and interpretation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
22
Magno, C., Amarles, M. A. (2011, January). Teachers’ Feedback Practices in Second
Language Academic Writing Classrooms. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from
http://tijepa.books.officelive.com
Mahfoodh, Mr. O, H, A. (2011, September). A Qualitative Case Study of EFL Students’
Affective Reactions to and Perceptions of Their Teachers’ Written Feedback.
Retrieved February 5, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Mi-mi, L. (2009, January). Adopting varied feedback modes in the EFL writing class.
Volume 7, No.1 (Serial No.64). Retrieved Ferbruary 7, 2012, from
search.ebscohost.com
Nordin, S. Md., Halib, M., Ghazali, Z., Mahari, R. M. A. (2010). Error Correction and
Students’ Perception on Teachers’ Written Feedback: An Exploratory Study on L2
Learners in a Malaysian University. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from
search.ebscohost.com
Storch, N. (2010, July 29). Critical Feedback on Written Corrective Feedback Research.
Retrieved February 5, 2012, from search.ebscohost.com
Telçeker, H., Akcan, S. (n.d). The Effect of Oral and Written Teacher Feedback on Students’
Revisions in a Process-Oriented EFL Writing Class. Retrieved February 5, 2012, from
search.ebscohost.com
Williams, J. G. (2003, October). Providing Feedback on ESL Students' Written Assignments.
Retrieved Januray 29, 2012 from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Williams-Feedback.html
23
APPENDIX A
This is the list of questions that is used in the interview process to collect the data from the
participants.
1.
Apa pendapatmu tentang‘Writing’? Apa yang kamu rasakan ketika kamu disuruh
menulis tentang sesuatu seperti essay atau tugas yang lainnya (di kelasmu)?
2. Di kelas Academic Writingmu, apa pendapatmu tentang revisi first draftmu (bisa
termasuk prosesnya)? Atau apa yang kamu pikir atau rasakan ketika kamu me-revisi
first draftmu? Apakah ada kesulitan yang kamu hadapi?
Jika kamu menemukan/menghadapi kesulitan -> Kesulitan macam apa yang kamu
temukan/hadapi? Bagaimana (cara) kamu mengatasinya?
3. Apa kamu tahu apakah ‘feedback’ itu? Apa pendapatmu tentang feedback?
4. a. Apa pendapatmu tentang feedback tertulis dosenmu, terutama commentnya?
Apakah kamu memerlukannya/tidak? Mengapa?
b. Apa yang kamu harapkan dari feedback tertulis dosen Academic Writingmu?
Apakah harapanmu tersebut terpenuhi setelah kamu mendapatkan comment dari
dosenmu? Jika iya, terpenuhi dalam hal apa? Jika tidak, mengapa tidak terpenuhi?
5.
Bagaimana pendapatmu tentang comment dosen yang baik/bagus/berguna itu? Atau
menurutmu bagaimana sebaiknya comment dosen yang baik/bagus/berguna itu?
6.
Comment seperti apa saja yang kamu dapatkan dari dosen di kelas Academic
Writingmu? Atau comment seperti apa saja yang diberikan oleh dosen di kelas
24
Academic Writingmu? Di bagian mana/ tentang apa? Bisakah tolong disebutkan
dan jelaskan?
Apa pendapatmu / apa yang kamu rasakan dari comment-comment tersebut?
Mengapa? adakah comment-comment lain yang sebenarnya kamu perlukan /
penting untukmu? Mengapa? (sambil melihat first draft)
7.
Comment dosen yang seperti apa yang paling berguna bagimu? (dari diskusi di atas)
8.
Mana yang lebih kamu pilih/kamu suka, comment dosen yang pendek/panjang?
Mengapa?
9.
Apa kamu setuju/tidak setuju dengan seluruh comment yang diberikan dosenmu?
Mengapa? Apa yang kamu lakukan jika kamu setuju/tidak setuju dengan seluruh
comment itu?
10. Apa yang kamu lakukan setelah mendapat comment dosen? Jika kamu tidak
mengabaikannya, apa yang kamu lakukan kemudian? Apa kamu menggunakannya
untuk merevisi first draftmu? Bagaimana kamu menggunakan comment-comment itu
untuk merevisi first draftmu?
11. Menurutmu perlu/tidak comment dosenmu di bagian yang salah? Mengapa?
12. Apakah kamu menginginkan comment dosenmu di bagian yang salah saja
(mengkoreksi kesalahan) / di bagian yang benar saja (memuji bagian yang sudah kau
tulis dengan benar) / di bagian yang salah maupun benar? Mengapa?
13. Setelah diskusi ini, saya ingin mengetahui sekali lagi, apa pendapatmu tentang
comment dosen yang menurutmu baik/bagus/berguna?
25
14. Apakah ada yang ingin kamu tambahkan / comment / membenarkan (meralat) apa
yang sudah kamu katakan tentang apa yang sudah kita bahas?
15. Terakhir, jika kamu dapat memberi sebuah pesan kepada dosenmu tentang
commentnya, kamu akan memberi pesan tentang apa? Atau apa yang akan kamu
katakan? Ada saran untuknya?