What do students say about teachers' written feedback on their academic writing?
Abstract
The paper session highlights undergraduate students' metalinguistic understanding of their EFL academic writing and looks into their perspectives of their teachers' written feedback on their writing. It will begin by featuring how metalinguistic understanding is theorized and defined. Then, based on the data analysis of semi-structured interviews with ten students, the session will explore what concepts students brought up in their verbal articulation of writing-related concepts and how they perceived the written feedback they received from their writing teachers on their scripts. Further, the session will offer a text analysis of students' scripts (seventy-two academic essays: thirty-six argumentative essays and thirty-six compare and contrast essays written by thirty-six students, including the ten interviewed students) and demonstrate examples from their texts concerning their writing-related understanding and perceptions. The session will also include relevant implications drawn from the analysis of how students verbalize their understanding of their writing and how they see writing and teacher feedback on their academic writing.
Keywords: EFL academic writing-metalinguistic understanding-perceptions- written feedback
Bio-note
Dr Jamila Al-Siyabi teaches at the Centre for Preparatory Studies at Sultan Qaboos University. She has a MA in Applied Linguistics from Queensland University, Australia, an MSc in Educational Research from Exeter University, UK and a PhD in Education from Exeter University, UK, in cohesion and coherence in EFL academic writing. She is the author and co-author of several publications, and she presented at national and international conferences. Her main research interests include writing, semantics communication and culture.