Abstract
While instructor feedback has generally been recognized as an essential factor in enhancing writing proficiency for multilingual writers, little known research has focused on students’ perceptions of and their experiences with different modes of instructor feedback. In addition, impacts of various feedback methods on students’ writing have remained debatable. This case study seeks to gain an in-depth understanding of the meaning and significance of three instructor feedback methods, namely written, oral, and audio-visual feedback, from students’ perspectives. Furthermore, it offers additional insights into the impacts of these three instructor feedback methods on students’ writing. To be more precise, this study aims to answer two main research questions: (a) What are multilingual students’ attitudes toward instructor feedback methods (i.e., written, oral, and audio-visual feedback)? and (b) How do these instructor feedback methods impact multilingual students’ writing and their writing experiences? In order to answer these questions, qualitative data, including three open-ended questionnaires administered after each specific feedback method is employed, transcriptions of thirty-minute recorded interviews with individual students after the implementation of the three feedback methods, and students’ written artifacts from their three ENG 101 essays, were collected from the two consenting students within one-semester of their first-year composition class at a Midwestern state university. Thematic content analysis of the questionnaire and interview data through the use of NVivo software program were organized into four critical areas: (1) Students’ introduction of their experiences with feedback, (2) Students’ various attitudes toward feedback, (3) Students’ applications of feedback, and (4) Various impacts of feedback. Additionally, the qualitative analysis of students’ written artifacts resulted in three emergent themes, including completely successful revision, considerably successful revision, and little successful revision. The findings show that although the two students perceived the three instructor feedback methods positively, there were not only variations in their perceptions of and experiences with each feedback format, but also different levels of success in their applications of each form of instructor feedback into their revisions. Based on these research results, possible implications are discussed for second language writing instruction and for further studies on the important topic of feedback in writing instruction.
Advisor
Sarah Henderson Lee
Committee Member
Karen Lybeck
Date of Degree
2017
Language
english
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
College
Arts and Humanities
Recommended Citation
Vo, H. T. T. (2017). Multilingual Students' Perceptions of and Experiences with Instructor Feedback Methods in a U.S. First-Year Composition Class [Master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/692/
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