Abstract:
Applying both teacher- and computer-generated feedback to foster EFL learners’ writing remains a less explored issue. The purpose of this study was two-fold. Firstly, it examined whether blending both online automated feedback (OAF) and teacher feedback had a significant effect on EFL learners’ writing ability or not. Secondly, it explored their perceptions on the use of the blended OAF and teacher feedback. To this end,this study employed a mixed-method design using essay writing, questionnaire, and interview to investigate the impact of blended OAF and teacher feedback on EFL learners’ writing ability in an essay writing course. Thirty intermediate EFL learners participated in the study; they were given the first writing pre-test, and then were assigned into experimental and control groups randomly. The experimental group was given access to the integrated OAF and teacher feedback on their two-paragraph problem-solution essay writing during the treatment phase while the control group received teacher-only feedback. The results of the independent samples t-test and RM ANOVA showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in terms of the overall score for the two final essay writings, and also demonstrated a significant improvement in writing scores across four essays during the treatment. The qualitative data also revealed the participants’ positive perception towards the effectiveness of the blended OAF and teacher feedback on their writing. Overall, the findings of this study can contribute to a better understanding of the impact of the blended feedback in enhancing EFL learners’ writing ability.
Machine summary:
To this end, this study employed a mixed-method design using essay writing, questionnaire, and interview to investigate the impact of blended OAF and teacher feedback on EFL learners’ writing ability in an essay writing course.
The findings of the present study can be significant for teachers, students, and other stakeholders such as test-developers and curriculum designers since instructors and the administrators, being eager to apply technological devices when providing feedback on learners’ writing, need more research to make informed choices about investing their time and budgets (Cunningham, 2018).
Therefore, to contribute to the existing literature, the current study sought to explore an innovative way in developing Iranian EFL learners’ writing ability through blending both teacher-generated and computer-based feedback provided by an OAF tool and to pave the way for further studies in this area.
AWE developers note that these programs demonstrate the ability to assess and provide feedback to EFL learners’ writing as a teacher does (Attali & Burstein, 2006; Vantage Learning, 2007; cited in Chen & Cheng, 2008).
In the last session of the experiment, both experimental and control groups wrote the final two- paragraph problem-solution essay writing within 30 minutes, and submitted it to the teacher for holistic automated scoring via the OAF tool.
All in all, the results suggested that the use of integrated OAF and teacher feedback could improve the EFL learners’ essay writing ability.
As explained earlier, 15 experimental EFL learners participated in the semi-structured interview to collect their views on the use of the integrated OAF and teacher feedback for essay writing.