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Examining the role of writing proficiency in students’ feedback literacy development

  • Yu Zhou

    Yu Zhou is a second-year PhD student at Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. Her research interests include second language writing, written feedback, writing curriculum. Her publication has appeared in System.

         , Shulin Yu

    Dr. Shulin Yu is an Associate Professor at Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. His research interests include second language writing and second language writing teacher education. His publications have appeared in Journal of Second Language Writing, Assessing Writing, Language Teaching Research, Language Teaching, and TESOL Quarterly.

     EMAIL logo     , Bihao Liu

    Bihao Liu is a master of English education at Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. His research interests include second language writing and feedback literacy.

         and Lianjiang Jiang

    Dr. Lianjiang Jiang is an Assistant professor at Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. His research interests include second language writing, digital multimodal composing, and new literacy studies. His publications have appeared in Language Teaching Research, System, ELT Journal, Journal of Second Language Writing, Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, Computer Assisted Language Learning and TESOL Quarterly.

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Published/Copyright: August 5, 2022
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Applied Linguistics Review
From the journal Applied Linguistics Review Volume 15 Issue 2

Abstract

While student feedback literacy has received increasing attention in second language education, little is known about the role of writing proficiency in the development of student feedback literacy. This qualitative study examined the characteristics of high and low English writing proficiency (i.e., HP, LP) students’ feedback literacy in second language (L2) writing and identified the factors that shape these students’ feedback literacy. This study involved five LP and five HP students with data collected from semi-structured interviews, students’ drafts, teacher’s written corrective feedback and peer feedback. The results found that both the LP and HP students were cognitively prepared in terms of appreciating feedback value with distinct self-orientation in feedback process and emotionally ready in regulating their affect for gains from handling feedback. Yet, the LP students were found less prepared to benefit from their current feedback practice due to their passive perspective of learner roles. By contrast, HP students displayed their preparedness featured by proactive learner roles in feedback process, well-developed judgement criteria and broader revisions. The internal consistency across dimensions of feedback literacy was also identified for HP students but not for LP students. Factors contributing to the disparity include students’ perception of their writing proficiency, course engagement and their self-regulation ability. Pedagogical implications on enhancing feedback literacy for students with varied writing proficiency levels are provided.

Keywords: feedback literacy; L2 writing; writing assessment; writing instruction; writing proficiency
Corresponding author: Shulin Yu, Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Room 3007, E33, Av. da Universidade, 999078, Taipa, Macau SAR, China, E-mail:

About the authors

Yu Zhou

Yu Zhou is a second-year PhD student at Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. Her research interests include second language writing, written feedback, writing curriculum. Her publication has appeared in System.

Shulin Yu

Dr. Shulin Yu is an Associate Professor at Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. His research interests include second language writing and second language writing teacher education. His publications have appeared in Journal of Second Language Writing, Assessing Writing, Language Teaching Research, Language Teaching, and TESOL Quarterly.

Bihao Liu

Bihao Liu is a master of English education at Faculty of Education, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China. His research interests include second language writing and feedback literacy.

Lianjiang Jiang

Dr. Lianjiang Jiang is an Assistant professor at Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. His research interests include second language writing, digital multimodal composing, and new literacy studies. His publications have appeared in Language Teaching Research, System, ELT Journal, Journal of Second Language Writing, Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, Computer Assisted Language Learning and TESOL Quarterly.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments to improve the manuscript and the participants for participating into this study and frankly sharing their story.

  1. Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Appendix A: Sample interview questions

First round

  1. Please share your knowledge and experiences of writing and feedback.

  2. What counts as good writings in your opinions and how does this evaluating standard come into being?

  3. What do you think of the role of feedback in writing and the role of the student in the feedback process?

Second round

  1. Did you understand all the feedback from your teacher (peer)?

  2. How did you feel when you receive feedback? Have you ever adopted measures to help your address your negative response, if any?

  3. Did you fully or selectively accept teacher (peer) feedback and why? And what are the reasons if you failed to revise as the feedback required?

  4. Why would you make revisions like this (based on selected example revisions)

  5. Have you ever encountered any challenges when handling the feedback and how would you respond?

  6. How did you comment on your peer’s essay and why?

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Received: 2021-08-20
Accepted: 2022-07-15
Published Online: 2022-08-05
Published in Print: 2024-03-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. ELF- or NES-oriented pedagogy: enhancing learners’ intercultural communicative competence using a dual teaching model
  4. “You can’t start a fire without a spark”. Enjoyment, anxiety, and the emergence of flow in foreign language classrooms
  5. “You have to repeat Chinese to mother!”: multilingual identity, emotions, and family language policy in transnational multilingual families
  6. On the influence of the first language on orthographic competences in German as a second language: a comparative analysis
  7. Validating the conceptual domains of elementary school teachers’ knowledge and needs vis-à-vis the CLIL approach in Chinese-speaking contexts
  8. Agentive engagement in intercultural communication by L2 English-speaking international faculty and their L2 English-speaking host colleagues
  9. Review Article
  10. Illuminating insights into subjectivity: Q as a methodology in applied linguistics research
  11. Research Articles
  12. Making sense of trans-translating in blogger subtitling: a netnographic approach to translanguaging on a Chinese microblogging site
  13. The shape of a word: single word characteristics’ effect on novice L2 listening comprehension
  14. Success factors for English as a second language university students’ attainment in academic English language proficiency: exploring the roles of secondary school medium-of-instruction, motivation and language learning strategies
  15. LexCH: a quick and reliable receptive vocabulary size test for Chinese Learners
  16. Examining the role of writing proficiency in students’ feedback literacy development
  17. Confucius Institute and Confucius Classroom closures: trends, explanations and future directions
  18. Translanguaging as decoloniality-informed knowledge co-construction: a nexus analysis of an English-Medium-Instruction program in China
  19. The effects of task complexity on L2 English rapport-building language use and its relationship with paired speaking test task performance
https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2021-0133
Keywords for this article
feedback literacy; L2 writing; writing assessment; writing instruction; writing proficiency

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. ELF- or NES-oriented pedagogy: enhancing learners’ intercultural communicative competence using a dual teaching model
  4. “You can’t start a fire without a spark”. Enjoyment, anxiety, and the emergence of flow in foreign language classrooms
  5. “You have to repeat Chinese to mother!”: multilingual identity, emotions, and family language policy in transnational multilingual families
  6. On the influence of the first language on orthographic competences in German as a second language: a comparative analysis
  7. Validating the conceptual domains of elementary school teachers’ knowledge and needs vis-à-vis the CLIL approach in Chinese-speaking contexts
  8. Agentive engagement in intercultural communication by L2 English-speaking international faculty and their L2 English-speaking host colleagues
  9. Review Article
  10. Illuminating insights into subjectivity: Q as a methodology in applied linguistics research
  11. Research Articles
  12. Making sense of trans-translating in blogger subtitling: a netnographic approach to translanguaging on a Chinese microblogging site
  13. The shape of a word: single word characteristics’ effect on novice L2 listening comprehension
  14. Success factors for English as a second language university students’ attainment in academic English language proficiency: exploring the roles of secondary school medium-of-instruction, motivation and language learning strategies
  15. LexCH: a quick and reliable receptive vocabulary size test for Chinese Learners
  16. Examining the role of writing proficiency in students’ feedback literacy development
  17. Confucius Institute and Confucius Classroom closures: trends, explanations and future directions
  18. Translanguaging as decoloniality-informed knowledge co-construction: a nexus analysis of an English-Medium-Instruction program in China
  19. The effects of task complexity on L2 English rapport-building language use and its relationship with paired speaking test task performance
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