Teacher Written Feedback: Learner Preferences, Perceptions, and Teacher Reflections

Teacher written feedback on student compositions has received tremendous attention in second language (L2) writing research. Notwithstanding the importance of understanding both teachers' and students' perspectives on the feedback process, much of the feedback research has only looked into one-side of the story - adopting either the teacher's or the student's perspective. The current study is an attempt to look into both sides of the story by examining the types of written feedback that students prefer, the extent to which students' preferences and teachers' actual feedback practice overlap, and the extent to which student perceptions of teacher feedback coordinate teacher self-reflections on their feedback practice. Three English composition classes (3 teachers and 46 students) at a university participated in this study. It analyzed student and teacher data from questionnaires and teacher written feedback on student compositions. The results showed that students' preference for feedback on global and local issues varied across the three composition classes. This is partly a consequence of how students perceived the type of feedback that their teachers practiced. Teacher self-reflection on and student perception of teacher written-feedback generally coordinated. These findings are discussed in light of how contextual factors affect learner perception of teacher written feedback and underscore the need for examining students' reactions to feedback and teacher self-reflection.