Teachers' Feedback on Discourse Features in EFL Writing: Case Studies in the Chinese Context

Abstract

Many English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers are familiar with tertiary students who can construct accurate sentences, but are unable to produce appropriate written texts. To date, few empirical studies have researched feedback on EFL students’ discourse-related writing problems. When very little is known about a phenomenon, the detailed study of a few cases is a particularly appropriate way to begin to fill the knowledge gap (Eisenhardt, 1989). This study therefore focused on three experienced EFL writing teachers in China to explore (1) the extent to which they provided feedback on discourse features; (2) the strategies they used when giving discourse-focused feedback comments; and (3) the relationship between their feedback practices and beliefs. Multiple methods were used to collect data over one academic semester using the analysis of marked assignments with the teachers’ written feedback, observations of whole-class oral feedback after the written feedback was given, and post-observation interviews with the teachers. The results showed that a large proportion of the teachers’ feedback comments focused on discourse features. The three teachers prioritised students becoming good writers rather than them being able to produce error-free sentences. They made both genre-specific and text-in-general comments targeting discourse features including organisation, unity, cohesion, coherence, and meta-discourse. The teachers seldom praised their students; most discourse-focused feedback identified writing problems. They pointed out discourse problems much more often than they suggested solutions or made corrections. Their focus and strategies in giving feedback were generally congruent with their stated beliefs about helping students become good writers. However, there were times when their practice was not consistent with their beliefs due to contextual factors such as teachers’ heavy workloads and consideration of students’ needs. This study makes a theoretical contribution to studies on Second Language Writing. It provides a descriptive account of the ways three writing teachers in the Chinese context used feedback to help their students develop discourse competence. The study ends with some practical applications for teacher education. The results obtained from this research can be used to help teachers who want to give discourse-focused feedback but are not familiar with doing so, and can also help guide students to give peer feedback focusing on the text beyond local grammar errors.