T1 112008103 Full text

STUDENTS’ RESPONSES AND REACTIONS TOWARD TEACHER’S
WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN EFL WRITING CLASS

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Yohanus Fhani Purnama Adi
112008103

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013

STUDENTS’ RESPONSES AND REACTIONS TOWARD TEACHER’S
WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN EFL WRITING CLASS

THESIS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Yohanus Fhani Purnama Adi
112008103

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
SALATIGA
2013
1

STUDENTS’ RESPONSES AND REACTIONS TOWARD TEACHER’S
WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN EFL WRITING CLASS

THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of

Sarjana Pendidikan

Yohanus Fhani Purnama Adi
112008103

Approved by:

2

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

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accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other
person except where due reference is made in the text.

Copyright@ 2013. Yohanus Fhani Purnama Adi and Hendro S. Husada, M.A.

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of

Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.

Yohanus Fhani Purnama Adi:

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Students’ responses and reactions toward teacher’s written feedback in EFL
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Students’ responses and reactions toward teacher’s written feedback
in EFL writing class

Yohanus Fhani Purnama Adi

ABSTRACT
The occurrence of teacher‟s written feedback can not be avoided in writing in order to aid
the students who were facing some problems composing their papers. However, there are still
some arguments about how importance and how to provide a good written feedback. This study,
therefore, which is replication of Alamis‟ (2010), aimed to evaluate the responses and reactions
that the students had about written feedback given by their teachers. The participants were 34
four students of the English Department of Satya Wacana Christian University who were
enrolled in the Expository and Argumentative Writing class. The data were collected from the
questionnaire. The result showed that the students agreed that feedback could help them in
writing. By reading the feedback, they became aware of their weakness and strength. They also
needed feedback which could motivate them to write better. The type of feedback preferred by
students was the combination of telegraphic and conversational feedback. Moreover, feedback in
content and organization were the areas that the participants wanted to get. At last, students
preferred feedback in the form of correction; and they highly chose the direct correction which
they believed could help them most in the process of writing.
Key words: Teacher‟s written feedback, type of feedback, writing, students‟ response

INTRODUCTION
Writing is considered as one of the most important skill that should be learnt by the ESL
learners. They need it to, for example, make a business letter, a note, or can be a journal article.

Almost all of English learning institution includes writing as a major focus. The concern of this
crucial skill also has been changed. According to Mi (2009), since the late 1908‟s, there has been
a focus change from product to process in writing. However, as Jimena, Tedjaatmadja, and Tian
(2005) explained, the writing processes that include drafting and revising require feedback from
the teacher as an essential factor for students‟ development: “errors are inherent to learners‟
works and the feedback teachers give to their works play a vital role in developing their writing
skills” (p. 10). Also, Perpignan (2003) and Zacharias (2007) found out from their research data
that written feedback was a powerful tool in learning and improving writing skill.

5

Hyland and Hyland (2006a) also stated that feedback is important for the learners in
giving the rhetorical choices center to new academic or professional literature; and feedback
plays role as learners‟ assistant in negotiating entrance to new knowledge and practices as well.
One more research by Hyland and Hyland (2006b) as well strongly argued that teacher feedback
can encourage and sustain social harmony and foster a cooperative pedagogical environment that
can promote learning. Moreover, the important of feedback is useful to show the learner in what
point they are good at or work well, and in what point they need improve their written work
(Leki, 2006). The information that is stated in the feedback has a purpose to make the learners
become aware where their weaknesses and falling factors are, so that they focus on practicing

that point. According to Willingham (1990), the essence of feedback is also promoted by giving
motivation to the students. Criticism from feedback given can motivate the students to produce
an improved paper and improved writing skills. He also believes that providing feedback will
encourage students to be his own editors who make everything in their writing make sense to the
reader.
Often, teachers find many learners get some troubles in writing; and they struggle to
develop their writing skill. Yanghee and Jiyoung (2005) asserted that ESL learners unavoidably
struggle with many aspects, such as, grammar accurateness, proper word choice, generating
ideas, and then developing the ideas. The most vital problem is the used of proper natural
language in different social contexts and how to use it in creative ways. Realizing the learners‟
problem, teachers try to give the best treatment for the learners so that they can perform better in
writing. One of the treatments is giving the learners feedback.
Learners‟ writing development is really affected by feedback which can help them face
their difficulties in writing. Mi (2009) and Nicol (2010) argued that the most practicable and
commonest form of feedback to the students‟ writing is feedback. Also, giving the students
feedback allows them to have a one-on-one communication in more than just inside the class.
6

Teachers‟ feedback, moreover, are expected can be a reference for the learners to revise and
develop their writing: “feedback will provide an inherent reason for students to revise; it is a

sense of revision as discovery, as a repeated process of beginning again, as starting out new, that
our students have not learned” (Sommer, 1982, p.156 in Alamis, 2010, p.41).
Furthermore, feedback offer the learners help to correct their writing, “at the end of error
self-correction activity, teacher‟s feedback is crucial and must be performed in a way to have a
long-term positive effect on students‟ ability to monitor their own performance” (Bartram &
Walton, 1991, p.95 in Kavaliauskienė, 2003, p.2). Ferris (2006) also proved that 80% of the
participants are successfully editing the errors after being commented by the teacher. So
feedback can minimize the errors occur and maximize learners‟ writing accuracy. Previous
research done by Ferris (1995) confirmed that the learners were helped by the teachers‟ feedback
in what should be improved or avoided in the future, finding mistakes, and clarifying their ideas.
Many researchers have done investigations to provide more effective and relevant
feedback to the learners; and some feedback types are applied to learners‟ written work to find
what types of feedback that help those most. Ferguson (2011) set the feedback in three areas. The
first is written feedback on small details error like vocabulary, grammar, referencing and
language used. The second area is feedback on the overall approach taken and general structure
of the work. The last area is feedback on the specific ideas and principles explored within the
work. Learners need the feedback on those areas to improve their writing. Unlike Ferguson,
Straub and Lunsford (2002) in Wiltse (2002) divided feedback into two; those are global and
local feedback. Global feedback is a feedback upon a written composition‟s content, for example
the ideas, development and organization. Meanwhile local feedback is a feedback on mechanical

writing issues, such as spelling and punctuation. For the error feedback, Ferris (2006) made a
distinction between direct feedback and indirect feedback. First, direct feedback is defined as the
discussion about the linguistic errors form provision by the teacher to the learner. This kind of
feedback can be done by crossing out an unnecessary word, phrase, or morpheme; inserting a
7

missing word or morpheme; or writing the correct word or form near the wrong form. Second,
indirect feedback is given just to indicate that there some errors occur in a written work but does
not offer some alternative answers, allowing the learners to be aware of their own mistakes and
solve them by themselves. The form of indirect feedback can be an underline, circle, code, or
other mark on the learners‟ error.
Scholars (Brookhart, 2008; Ferris, 1997; Ferris, 2006; Leki, 2006; Nicol, 2010) try to find
out the best feedback for the learners. They try to know what kind of feedback that can help the
learner most. Brookhart (2008) believed that the quality of learner work or the processes or
strategies used to do the work is the most useful feedback must focus on.
Then, to provide a good aid, Ferris (1997) suggested that:
Teachers should therefore be careful (a) in their own responding strategies, (b) in
explaining those strategies to their students, and (c) in helping students learn to revise and
holding them accountable for considering feedback they have received in doing so.
Again, Ferris (2006) argued that good feedback is a feedback which gives the students

long-term improvement, not only short-term ability to correct certain types of error. Feedback is
considered not only as a short-time helper, but also as an escort for further writing progress.
Whereas according to Leki (2006), a good feedback should clearly give information about in
what aspect learners‟ written work is adequately good or bad, in order to make the learner know
what part should be improved. Next, Nicol (2010) insisted that a written feedback will be useful
if written feedback is set in dialogical contexts in which feedback activities are shared across
teachers and learners and are adaptive, discursive, interactive and reflective.
Despite of the fact that teachers‟ feedback have great advantages to the learners‟ written
work, there are some problems. Actually, learners believe that constructive feedback can
enhance some learners‟ self esteem in their ability to write and encourage them to work harder
and develop their writing skill. However, that feedback which has a purpose to be constructive
factors, sometimes can cause some learners have an aversion to writing and lost their motivation
to improve their writing (Wiltse, 2002). Furthermore, giving a feedback to the learner is
8

considered ineffectual by some teachers. Sometimes, some of learners keep on repeating the
same errors, and to achieve accuracy in writing, which is grammatically demanding, teachers
realize that it is really hard for the learners (Littlewood, 1995, in Jimena et al., 2005). Some
researchers (Ferris, 1997; Goldstein, 2006; Nicol, 2010; Regan, 2010; Zacharias, 2007) affirm
that learners get difficulties in dealing with unclear feedback that does not directly state the

revision was needed. Some of them do not understand about the feedback given by the teacher
and do not know what to do. Students also think sometimes feedback is overwhelming and they
have to read between the lines to comprehend what is being said. Later on, the students‟ writing
does not have any significant improvement and continue repeating the same mistakes. The
misunderstanding of the learners makes them unsuccessfully revise their written work in
response to the teachers‟ feedback.
The problems above are made me as a researcher wonder how the learners react with the
written feedback given by the teacher. Learners respond to the feedback need to be observed to
answer that question. So, the aim of this study is wanted to know how the learners will respond
the teacher‟s written feedback. Specifically, the researcher wants to find out:
1. What reasons do the students have for reading the written feedback from their teacher?
2. Do the feedback help the students understand how to improve their writing?
3. What type of feedback do the students find helpful for them?
4. In what areas would the students like to receive feedback from their teacher?
5. In what form do the students prefer feedback on their papers?

THE STUDY
Context of the Study
This research was conducted at the English Department (ED) of Satya Wacana Christian
University (SWCU). To find the data about students‟ reactions and responses toward written
feedback in their written work, students who were enrolled the Expository and Argumentative
9

Writing class were taken as participants. This writing class was offered to the students after they
had passed the Guided Writing and Narrative & Descriptive Writing. The objective of the course
to help the students will be able to write five-paragraph essays, focusing on expository and
argumentative essays. In this course, the students were introduced and were required to write
expository essays (example essay and comparison – contrast essay) and argumentative essays.
The written feedback from the lecturer was always given to the students after they returned their
drafts. The general purpose of giving the written feedback was to offer some helps in students‟
written works.
Participants
Five students were randomly taken from every 8 writing classes to fill in the
questionnaire. Most of them were second and third year students who were approximately 21 to
22 years old. English was their foreign language; and they were Indonesians. They had already
learnt English from 9 to 10 years. A total 40 students were taken as the participants at first, but
six of these did not submit sufficient data and excluded from the data analysis since those six
questionnaire sheets were filled incompletely. The remaining 34 students consisted of 7 males
and 27 females were the final number of participants. These students were most probably already
familiar with the term “feedback” because English Department students accustomed receiving
feedback from their teacher.
Data Collection
Participants were asked to fill in a combination of likert scale and open-ended
questionnaire about their responses and reactions toward written feedback, which was replicated
from Alamis‟ (2010) study. Her study involved 141 students who enrolled in Expository Writing
Class at the Faculty of Arts and Letters (FAL) of the University of Santo Tomas. The first three
likert scale questions was ranged from “always”, “sometimes”, “hardly”, and “never”. Then, the
next five likert scale questions was ranged from “high”, “moderate”, and “low”. The last one
question was the open-ended question. Those 9 questions were divided into 6 aspects; they were
10

(1) the reasons of reading feedback (e.g. I read the teacher‟s feedback because I am expected to),
(2) the usefulness of feedback (e.g. Teacher‟s feedback help me understand to improve my
writing), (3) the feedback types (e.g. The type of feedback I find helpful are telegraphic
feedback), (4) the suggestion for teacher (e.g. My suggestion to improve teacher‟s feedback is
using the conversational feedback), (4) the areas of feedback (e.g. In which of the following
areas would you like to receive feedback from your writing teacher?), and (6) the forms of
feedback (e.g. In which of the following forms would you like to receive feedback from your
writing teacher?).
Also, the questionnaire had been piloted to 2 students in order to check the clearness of
the questions and instructions. Before piloting, since the original questionnaire in English, it was
completely translated into Bahasa Indonesia with the assumption it would be more
understandable for the students. Based on the students‟ input, the questionnaire was revised.
Finally, it was distributed to the students in 8 classes towards the middle of the semester when
they wrote comparison – contrast essays.
Data Analysis
After all the data were gathered, they were set in six tables which represented six aspects.
They were (1) the reasons of reading feedback, (2) the usefulness of feedback , (3) the types of
feedback, (4) the suggestion for teacher about what feedback type should be used, (5) the areas
of feedback, and (6) the forms of feedback. The first aspect, the reasons of reading feedback, was
to discover why student wanted to read the feedback. Second aspect, the usefulness of feedback,
was to find how helpful teachers‟ feedback in improving students‟ writing. Then, the students‟
preference of feedback type which assisted them most was in third aspect. Also, the suggested
type of feedback that should be given by the teacher was in the fourth aspect. The fifth aspect,
the area of feedback, was to know the students‟ preference of the area that feedback should be
given. The last aspect was to know what kind of feedback forms that the students most likely
received.
11

The students‟ responses in second aspect, the usefulness of feedback, were classified into
positive and negative response. “Always” and “sometimes” was classified under the positive
response, while „hardly” and “never” was put under the negative response. For the remained
aspects, students‟ responses were ranked in three level of priority; they are “high”, “moderate”,
and “low”. Percentages of each response, which calculation was the frequency of the answer
divided by the total number of participants times one hundred percent, were made to make a
clear ratio of the students‟ preference and to help the analysis. Then, descriptive statistics was
used to examine the data gathered from the questionnaire to get the frequency and result of the
participants‟ responses. Since this paper is a replication of Alamis‟ (2010) study, the result was
also compared to her study.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This result was based on the findings which were organized in six aspects to answer the
research questions:
1. What reasons do the students have for reading the written feedback from their teacher?
2. Do the feedback help the students understand how to improve their writing?
3. What type of feedback do the students find helpful for them? What type of feedback do
the students suggest their teacher give them?
4. In what areas would the students like to receive feedback from their teacher?
5. In what form do the students prefer feedback on their papers?
Those questions would be a guidance to understand the students‟ reactions and responses
to the teachers‟ written feedback. To answer the research questions stated earlier, these following
tables recapitulate the results based on the participants‟ response to the questionnaire given.
Table 1
Reasons for Reading Teacher Feedback
Reasons
High
1. I want to know my strong
and weak points.

F
29

%
85
12

Rank
Moderate
F
%
5
15

Low
F
0

%
0

2. I want a justification of my
grade.
3. I am expected to.

4

12

27

79

3

9

1

3

2

6

31

91

The Table 1 above was a figure on students‟ reasons for reading teacher written feedback
and the table was actually run parallel to Alamis‟ (2010) study. It was figured out that most of
the students were highly reasoned (85%) to read teacher feedback because of their belief of how
feedback would help them aware of their strong and weak points in writing. Moreover, there was
no student (0%) who chose this reason in low rank level. This result supported Leki‟s (2006)
thought who believed feedback worked as a useful tool to show the learner in what point they are
good at or work well, and in what point they need improve their written work. Knowing the
strong and weak points from teachers‟ written feedback would also make the students develop
their ability as a writer since they would be more aware of their weaknesses and tried to resolve
them.
Another motive why they read teacher feedback, which they wanted to know the
justification of their grade, was moderately important (79%). This reason also had the highest
percentage in moderate level in Alamis‟ (2010) study. Some students were also aware about their
grades, not only aware of the benefit that was offered by the written feedback. They were curious
about the justification of their grades of their writing capability. Yet, it should be remembered
that merely justifying grades could not allow the students to reach the better achievement in
writing, instead they needed a feedback that could assess and evaluate their paper (Ferguson,
2011). When the feedback assessed and evaluated the students‟ paper, they could know how to
revise and improve their written work.
Next, a high percentage of low rank reason appeared (91%) of the students‟ reason which
they were expected by the teacher to read the feedback. In her study, Alamis (2010) found that
most of FAL students did the same thing. Students read the feedback in their own desire and
there was no compulsion from the others, including their own teacher. It indicated that they spent
13

some time to the feedback since they were conscious about the importance of it but not because
they were asked to. If the students read the feedback because they were expected to, it showed
that they just simply read it without knowing the importance of feedback and the purpose of why
their teacher gave it to them.
Table 2
Usefulness of Teacher Feedback on Student Writing
Frequency (positive)
Uses of Teacher Feedback
Always
Sometimes
F
%
F
%
1. It helps improve my writing
24
71
7
20
2. It helps when the teacher
praises what I wrote.
3. It helps when errors are
shown.

Frequency (negative)
Hardly
Never
F
%
F
%
3
9
0
0

15

43

12

36

6

18

1

3

27

80

7

20

0

0

0

0

Table 2 showed that the students in Expository and Argumentative Writing class found
that teacher feedback were useful to help refine their writing and help them to write, especially
when errors were shown. Only few students had the negative response toward teacher feedback.
Indeed, from the high percentage of positive response of teacher‟s praises toward students
writing, it was clear that teacher‟s praises also helped them to write, but it did not have a positive
response as high as showing the students‟ errors.
This result was quite different with Alamis‟ (2010) study. Teacher‟s praises were always
more helpful for the FAL students rather than showing each error made by the students. Wiltse
(2002) believed commendations from the teacher would help the students by increasing their
self-esteem in writing. Teacher‟s praises could build up the motivation of the students when they
wrote and made them recognize that they were work well then. From the fact above, this
distinction of the results that occurred between this study and Alamis‟ might be caused by the
difference of students‟ level of writing ability and students‟ level of motivation. Wiltse (2002)
also found that teacher‟s praises only gave a great help for skilled writers, not for poor writers.
More skilled writers would tend to have commends written in their paper.

14

In this study, ED students experienced that teacher‟s praises could help them, but from
percentages above, it seemed that they were more likely to have the errors warning in their paper.
It was should be considered that students not only needed to be motivated but they also needed to
be assisted to know their errors. Error warning would be really effective to offer some helps for
the students to correct their own work (Ferris, 2006). It was a wise decision for the teacher to
give the students both, errors warning and praises, because not only get motivated, but the
students would also get a clear thought where the part of the paper should be revised.
Table 3
Types of Feedback That Students Find Helpful in Improving Their Writing
Rank
Type of Feedback
High
Moderate
F
%
F
%
1. Telegraphic (e.g. vf, t, sp,
7
20
9
27
ew, etc.)
2. Conversational (e.g., Why
5
15
17
50
do you like it?)
3. Both telegraphic and
22
65
8
23
conversational

Low
F
18

%
53

12

35

4

12

From the Table 3 was shown the figures of types of feedback that helped them more in
improving their writing. This result was similar to Alamis‟ (2010) study. The higher level was
for the combination of telegraphic and conversational types (65%). One type of feedback, only
telegraphic or just conversational feedback, was not enough for FAL and ED students. They
needed both of them written in their paper to develop their writing. It was also be found that
more than half of the students (53%) considered only telegraphic feedback would not really
assist them. Students were perplexed how to correct their writing if they were only given
telegraphic feedback. They were familiar with the meaning of every symbol but they had no idea
what to do with the symbol written in their paper since sometimes they assumed that their
writing was already correct and revision was not needed. Usually, most of the symbols of
telegraphic feedback represented the grammar errors such as, “art” for article and “vf” for verb
form; and it was rarely to have a symbol for indicating the content or organization errors in
15

writing. From the fact above, the telegraphic feedback would be more efficient only for
correcting grammar errors, not for pointing out the content of students‟ writing which was
inappropriate.
For the conversational feedback, half of the students ranked it in the moderate level
(50%). To conclude the figures, conversational provided them with more help to advance their
writing than telegraphic feedback. It explained Wellingham‟s (1990) idea that conversational
feedback initiates dialog between students and teachers, rather than setting up teacher‟s feedback
as oracles. When students write and they think their writing is good, it is difficult to explain that
their works actually need to be revised. They will feel that it is not easy to understand the errors
even though they are pointed out. That is the time when conversational feedback is needed to
create a good dialog and make the students comprehend what to do with their written works.
Table 4
Suggested Types of Feedback

1. Telegraphic

F
4

%
12

Rank
Moderate
F
%
10
29

2. Conversational

5

15

18

53

11

32

3. Both telegraphic and
conversational

25

73

6

18

3

9

High

Type of Comments

Low
F
20

%
59

The data from Table 4 was similar with the data shown in Table 3. Students wanted their
teacher to provide the feedback that helped them most. The most expected feedback was the
combination of telegraphic and conversational, and the second preference was conversational
feedback. Equal with the figures in table 3, they did not desire their teacher to present them only
with telegraphic feedback.
Table 5
Areas the Students Prefer to Receive Feedback from Their Teachers
Rank
High
Moderate
Areas of Feedback
F
%
F
%
1. Vocabulary
2
6
8
24
16

Low
F
24

%
70

2. Language use/grammar

11

32

19

56

4

12

3. Content/Organization

21

62

7

20

6

18

The content or the organization as the area which they preferred to receive feedback had
been chosen in a high rank (62%) by most of ED students. This result also happened in Alamis‟
(2010) study which involved FAL students. Feedback in contents and organization would give
them a guidance to develop their writing and not simply a clue to use a proper word like the
feedback in vocabulary does. Aside how helpful feedback in content and organization, it should
be remembered that teacher be supposed to focus on students' attention on the content of the
composition and the process they followed instead of merely pointing out areas that the teacher
found interesting or lacking (Williams, 2003).Research from Perpignan (2003) also found that
feedback in the area of content and organization had a high consensus of preference. Then, the
high percentage (70%) of low level rank created a strong impression that the ED and FAL
students did not like to receive feedback in the vocabulary area. It seemed that they did not really
care about their vocabulary accuracy rather than their ideas and contents in writing.
Quite lot participants (56%) consider that feedback in language use or grammar was
moderately important. Indeed, evaluating grammar is important in writing, but there is something
more important which can enhance students‟ writing performance, that is evaluating the ideas of
their text. Feedback on grammar correction was not really efficient enough in writing because if
the students busy correcting the grammar errors, their thought on how to develop the idea of
writing would be much distracted (Goldstein, 2006).
Table 6
Forms of Feedback the Students Prefer on Their Papers

1. Questions

F
2

%
6

Rank
Moderate
F
%
9
27

2. Suggestions

12

36

19

High

Forms of Feedback

17

55

Low
F
23

%
67

3

9

3. Corrections
- Indirect
- Direct

4

12

3

9

5

15

16

46

3

9

3

9

These figures slightly different with Alamis‟ (2010) study that the result from FAL
students was feedback in the form of suggestion had the highest level of priority. The figures
above showed feedback in the form of corrections had a quite high level (58%) of priority if both
indirect and direct were summed up. By giving the corrections, especially the direct correction,
ED students became to know the exact part where to work more as they were offered the right
answer. Unlike ED students, FAL students were more likely to get the feedback in the form of
suggestion because they preferred to resolve their problem by themselves rather than rewrite the
answer given by the teacher. Based on Wellingham‟s (1990) idea, teacher should not give too
much direct correction feedback for the reason that it would reduce the students‟ opportunity to
understand their own errors. Furthermore, students also would lose their opportunity to improve
their writing skill abilities; they would only copy what was written by the teacher in their paper.
However, ED students still somewhat regarded suggestion as an important feedback,
proven by their preference to choose suggestion in the moderate level (55%); and it showed that
feedback in the form of suggestion was still crucially needed. According to Ferris (1997),
suggestion on students‟ paper will guide the students‟ ideas and allow them to make
modifications with confidence and competence. Next, the most ineffective form of feedback for
ED students was question. FAL students also had the same preference. Perpignan (2003) argued
that students did not like being asked by the teacher some questions while they were questioning
their own works whether their writing was already good or not. It will make them more confused
because they get so many questions in their mind so that they could not focus on developing their
idea in their paper.

18

CONCLUSION
Writing was no longer only about product; it was also about process. Sometimes, the
process was not easy for students. In that process, the occurrence of feedback was badly needed
in order to guide, help, and improve student‟s writing skill. Feedback was a crucial aid for every
student who had a problem in writing. However, the thing that should be considered was teacher
could not offer feedback without giving any attention to students‟ responses and reactions toward
the feedback itself. In other words, teachers should understand feedback from students‟
perspective and should understand what kind of feedback students wanted. The reasons of
reading feedback, the usefulness of feedback, the types of feedback, the suggestion for teacher
about what feedback type should be used, the areas of feedback, and the forms of feedback were
the aspects which should be understood by the teacher in giving the feedback. Teacher should
find out how those aspects would agree with students‟ needs, so that the feedback would really
give a real help to the students.
Based on the result of this study, the main reason why students read feedback was
because they sought after their weak and strong points, not merely because they were asked to
read it by their teacher. Some students also read feedback because they wanted to know a
justification of their grade. Next, most students agreed that feedback helped them in improving
their writing skill; and how students regarded feedback as a useful tool was when errors were
shown. Feedback contained praises also could help them but not as much as error feedback.
After that, the type of feedback preferred by students was the combination of telegraphic and
conversational feedback. They expected teacher would gladly give both types of feedback on
their paper; and they did not want to be given just telegraphic or conversational feedback only.
Then, the areas of feedback which were needed by students were feedback in content and
organization. Also, feedback on grammar could offer a little help to them. However, they did not
really need feedback on vocabulary. Finally, students highly chose direct correction if they were

19

asked about the forms of feedback. They liked feedback in the form of suggestion as well rather
than in the form of question.
To create good feedback, teacher should know the students‟ reactions and responses
toward feedback. Yet, those reactions and responses might be varied in different places that
could be affected by students‟ motivation, students‟ writing ability, students‟ needs, and social
environment. Teacher ought to aware about it. Therefore, I want to suggest every teacher in the
writing class to conduct a small research to identify students‟ need and preference of feedback in
the beginning of the class. Even just by asking them directly would give the teacher valuable
information. After gathering enough information, teachers would be able to construct a helpful
and understandable feedback for their students. Students were also expected to actively give a
positive suggestion in developing the best feedback; and always be sensitive for every single
feedback given because it was written in their paper for their own sake. Then, good quality
feedback which came along the process of writing would make the students write better and
better.

REFERENCES
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Feedback. Philippine ESL Journal , 40-57.
Brookhart, S. M. (2008). Feedback. Educational Leadership, 54-59.
Ferguson, P. (2011). Student perceptions of quality feedback in teacher education. Assessment &
Evaluation in Higher Education , 51–62.
Ferris, D. (2006). Does error feedback help student writers? New evidence on the short-term and
long-term effects of written error correction. In K. Hyland, & F. Hyland (Eds.), Feedback
in second language writing (pp. 81-108). USA: Cambridge University Press.
Ferris, D. R. (1995). Student reactions to teacher response in multiple-draft composition
Classrooms. Tesol Quaterly (29), 33-53.
Ferris, D. R. (1997). The influence of teacher commentary on student revision. Tesol Quaterly
(31), 315-339.

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Goldstein, L. (2006). Feedback and revision in second language writing: Contextual, teacher, and
student variables. In K. Hyland, & F. Hyland (Eds), Feedback in second language writing
(pp. 185-205). USA: Cambridge University Press.
Hyland, K., & Hyland, F. (2006a). Contexts and issues in feedback on L2 writing: An
introduction. In K. Hyland, & F. Hyland (Eds), Feedback in second language writing (pp.
1-19). USA: Cambridge University Press.
Hyland, K., & Hyland, F. (2006b). Interpersonal aspects of response: Constructing and
interpreting teacher written feedback. In K. Hyland, & F. Hyland (Eds), Feedback in
second language writing (pp. 206-224). USA: Cambridge University Press.
Jimena, E. D., Tedjaatmadja, H. M., & Tian, M. (2005). Error correction: A bridge to
grammatical accuracy in L2 writing. Surabaya: Petra Christian University.
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Journal of Language Learning (1).
Kim, Y., & Kim, J. (2005). Teaching Korean University Writing Class: Balancing the Process
and the Genre Approach. The Asian EFL Journal , 69-90.
Leki, I. (2006). "You cannot ignore": L2 raduate students' response to decipline-based written
feedback. In K. Hyland, & F. Hyland, Feedback in Second Language Writing (pp. 266285). USA: Cambridge University Press.
Mi-mi, L. (2009, January). Adopting varied feedback modes in the EFL writing class. US-China
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Perpignan, H. (2003). Exploring the written feedback dialogue: a research, learning and teaching
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Regan, P. J. (2010). Read Between the Lines; the Emancipatory Nature of Formative Annotative
Feedback on Draft Assignments. Systemic Practice & Action Research , 453-466.
Williams, J. G. (2003, October). Providing Feedback on ESL Students' Written Assignments.
The Internet TESL Journal .
Willingham, D. B. (1990, February). Effective Feedback on Written Assignments. Theacing of
Psychology , pp. 10-13.
Wiltse, E. M. (2002). Correlates of College Students' Use of Instructors' Comments. Journalism
& Mass Communication Education , 126-138.
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Language Centre Journal , 38-52.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank to Jesus Christ who always by my side and blesses me to finish my
thesis. This thesis never have been possible without the help of many people. One of them who
gives the greatest help is my supervisor, Hendro S. Husada. He always assists me, teaches me,
and provides me with many aid in completing my thesis. My gratitudes are also for my parents,
Purnomo and Sri Sugiarni, my brother, Dhani Purnawan and Shony Purnama. They support
me all the time and sometimes accompanied me if I had to stay awake in the midnight dealing
with my thesis. I also don‟t forget to give my thanks to all my friends, Deilly, Rahma, Kiki
”Keong”, Tesa, Dita, ”Gegabah Genk”, ”Eders 08” and many more for the valuable
suggestions, support, smile, happines, that we share together. Thank you, all!

22

APPENDIX
NIM

: …………………………………………

Jenis Kelamin : ………………………………..........
Mohon perkenan Saudara untuk mengisi angket yang telah kami sediakan sebagai
instrumen penelitian. Angket ini ditujukan untuk melakukan penelitian tentang bagaimana sikap
siswa terhadap feedback tertulis yang diberikan oleh dosen. Pengisian instrumen penelitian ini
tidak akan berpengaruh pada nilai Anda. Data yang kami peroleh sepenuhnya digunakan untuk
kepentingan ilmiah. Mohon kepada Saudara untuk mengisi sesuai dengan keadaan yang
sebenarnya. Kerjakan sesuai dengan petunjuk.
Terimakasih atas kesediaan Saudara meluangkan waktu untuk mengisi instrumen
penelitian ini.
I. Beri tanda centang pada jawaban yang paling sesuai dengan pendapat anda.

1. Feedback dari dosen membantu saya
dalam memahami bagaimana cara
untuk memperbaiki tulisan saya.
2. Feedback dari dosen membantu saya
saat dosen memuji apa yang saya tulis.
3. Feedback dari dosen membantu saya
ketika dosen menunjukkan kesalahan
yang saya buat.

II.

Selalu

Kadang

Jarang

Tidak
pernah

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

Berilah tanda T (tinggi), S (sedang), atau R (rendah) sesuai dengan tingkat prioritas anda.
Bacalah keseluruhan soal di tiap nomor sebelum mengisi . Tentukan pilihan tingkat
prioritas anda yang kemudian diikuti dengan memberikan tanda tingkat prioritas. Tiap satu
nomor pertanyaan TIDAK boleh diisi dengan tingkat prioritas yang yang sama.
Tinggi
Sedang
Rendah

T
S
R

1. Saya membaca feedback dari dosen karena:
- saya diharapkan membacanya
- saya ingin dasar penilaian dari dosen tentang tulisan saya
- saya ingin tahu kelemahan dan kelebihan saya dalam menulis

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____
____
____

2. Tipe feedback yang membantu adalah:
-

telegraphic feedback.
contoh: sp (spelling), agr (agreement), t (tense),
vf (verb form), pro (pronoun)

____

-

conversational feedback.
contoh: Tell me more about stressing experience
What would happen if you move sentences 2 and 3 to paragrapg 3?

____

-

keduanya (telegraphic dan conversational feedback)

____

3. Saran saya untuk meningkatkan feedback dari dosen adalah:
- gunakan telegraphic feedback
- gunakan conversational feedback
- gunakan keduanya (telegraphic dan conversational feedback)

____
____
____

4. Di area mana anda lebih suka menerima feedback dari dosen anda?
- vocabulary
- Language use / grammar
- content / organization

____
____
____

5. Dalam bentuk apakah feedback yang anda suka?
- pertanyaan
- saran
- pembenaran (pilih salah satu)
a. secara tak langsung (hanya member tanda pada kesalahan)
b. secara langsung (memberi tanda dan menyediakan jawaban
yang benar pada kesalahan)
6. Beri alasan atau opini anda pada jawaban yang anda pilih (jika ada).

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____
____
____
____

25