The Use of Written Corrective Feedback. A Survey of Written Response from Teachers to ESL Students in English A-Course Upper Secondary School

Abstract

Teachers and the main body of researchers seem to be of the opinion that in order to learn as efficiently as possible we need to know when we fail and preferably how we can correct our errors; that we need to be given feedback to progress in our learning. Ideas such as these seem to originate in the Sociocultural Theory and Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Researchers in the field of language proficiency have nonetheless since Truscott’s publication (1996) debated whether feedback is of good or evil. This study comprises a small descriptive rendering of 100 ESL students’ experiences and attitudes towards written corrective feedback and how it is used and perceived at the English A-course level in four selected upper secondary schools in Gothenburg. It stems from the latest research observations in the field of linguistics and pedagogics. The present study finds that (a) feedback is used, (b) the types of feedback typically used are indirect WCF, (c) the students want feedback and (d) feedback is intertwined with the pedagogical aspects. Further research is also called for, which investigates feedback in a context.