The impact of a feedback intervention on university students’ second language writing feedback literacy

ABSTRACT

This study evaluated the effect of a combined feedback activity (peer feedback, computer-generated feedback and teacher feedback) on students’ second language (L2) writing feedback literacy. One hundred and eighty-two Chinese university students participated in this research. Findings revealed that the intervention significantly improved students’ literacy in Appreciating Feedback, Acknowledging Different Feedback Sources and Managing Affect, but not Making Judgements and Taking Action. L2 proficiency levels affected the literacy development. Low-proficiency students’ feedback literacy did not change significantly. Middle-proficiency students improved significantly in Appreciating Feedback, Acknowledging Different Feedback Sources, Managing Affect, and Taking Action. High-proficiency students only improved significantly in Appreciating Feedback. Findings further reveal different degrees of difficulty for students to improve feedback literacy along its five dimensions. This study bears implications for developing students’ feedback literacy in L2 writing and in other disciplinary areas, particularly regarding how teachers could use multiple feedback sources and address students’ varied proficiency levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Feedback activities
• feedback literacy
• second language writing
• second language proficiency
• writing assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Macau [MYRG2022-00273-FED].

Notes on contributors

Emily Di Zhang

Emily Di Zhang is Postdoctoral Fellow at School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. Her research interests include digital multimodal composing, L2 writing testing and assessment, feedback literacy, and paraphrasing. She has publications in journals of Computer Assisted Language Learning, Assessing Writing, Language Teaching Research, Applied Linguistics Review, Language Assessment Quarterly, Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, Journal of Asia TEFL, and Language Testing in Asia.

Chunhong Liu

Chunhong Liu is a PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University, Canada. His major research interests include EFL writing, discourse analysis, and English for Academic Purposes. His research has been published in journals like Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Journal of Second Language Writing, Assessing Writing, and English for Specific Purposes.

Shulin Yu

Shulin Yu is Associate Professor at Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. His research interests include second language writing and classroom feedback and assessment in higher education. His publications have appeared in Educational Research Review, Assessing Writing, Journal of Second Language Writing, Language Teaching Research, Language Teaching, TESOL Quarterly, Studies in Educational Evaluation, Teaching and Teacher Education, System, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, and Teaching in Higher Education.