A Case Study Of Teacher Written Feedbacks On Senior High School Students’ Writings

It is an essential teaching practice to give feedback on students’ errors. The critical pointis how to make feedback effectively when providing feedback. In fact, teacher writtenfeedbacks are not only a time-consuming but also a labor-intensive activity, and most teachersknow that it is a challenge to respond effectively to students’ problems in their writings. In therecent30years, researches about teacher written feedbacks and students’ attitudes towardstheir teachers’ feedbacks have been studied extensively, but in China, researches on this areaare rare. Most of the researches present this issue through literature reviews. With a case studycarried out in EFL contexts, this study aims to explore the features of teacher writtenfeedbacks provided by a senior high school teacher for her students’ writings in three monthsand the students’ attitudes through sample analysis, questionnaire and interviews. Theresearch questions are as follows:(1) What are the features of teachers’ written feedbacks on senior high school students’writings?(2) What are the students’ attitudes and responses toward their teachers’ feedbacks?The subject of this case study is one female senior high school English teacher and40students that she teaches. The instruments of this research include writing tasks, questionnaireand interviews. After three months, data of student’s three writing tasks, interview results andquestionnaires are collected and analyzed. The descriptive data are based on the analysis ofteacher’s written feedbacks on students’ writings, the questionnaire to students and theinterviews of both teacher and students.The author finds that the teacher in this case study concerns more on the form ofstudents’ compositions. When giving feedbacks, the teacher prefers to give imperativefeedbacks. In addition to this, the teacher’s written feedbacks are lack of variety. Moreover,the students do take seriously about their teachers’ feedbacks, but considering the individualdifferences of the students, their response and preference to teacher’s written feedbacks aredifferent.Based on this, the author suggests that in the Chinese EFL context, teachers should drawmore attention to the content of students’ writing. The multi-drafts and process-orientedapproach should be widely incorporated into the EFL writing classes in China. Consideringthe individual difference of the students, teachers need to adjust their strategies whenproviding feedbacks. Besides, communication should be strengthened to bond the relationshipbetween teachers and students.