Trischa Duke
Tutorium in Intensive English, Office of the Vice Provost for Global Engagement
Trischa Duke Heading link
Trischa Duke
Trischa Duke is a Senior Lecturer at UIC’s Tutorium, where she has taught intensive and academic English courses since 2010 and has served as the chair of the Tutorium’s Accelerator Program since 2018. She specializes in curriculum and faculty development in intensive English and university pathway programs. Her research focuses on post-secondary English language learner development and retention as well as second-language writing and writing instruction. She teaches English for Academic Purposes, international freshman orientation, and writing support courses.
Duke is a 2022-23 Action Research Scholar.
Trischa Duke
Trischa Duke
Investigating International Students’ Perceptions and Utilization of Instructor Writing Feedback Heading link
Abstract
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This non-invasive qualitative action research study examines international undergraduates’ perceptions and utilization of instructor feedback on their writing in an effort to improve skill development by more effectively aligning feedback with its uptake.
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Classroom artifacts that are an established part of the course, such as writing assignment rubrics, self-review checklists, and reflective journal entries, will be collected and analyzed in order to trace the feedback cycle throughout students’ writing process. Findings will be used by instructors to examine their current feedback practices and how they might more effectively align these practices with student expectations and uses of constructive feedback.
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Project Background and Rationale
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Feedback is one of the most influential factors on student learning in any learning context. It is paramount for educators to balance learning activities with sufficient opportunities for feedback as a means of formatively assessing progress and fostering the development of target knowledge and skills (Havnes, Smith, Dysthe, & Ludvigsen, 2012). A classroom culture of feedback allows students to consider mistakes as learning opportunities while also fostering students’ ability to utilize instructor and peer feedback as a tool to build the necessary skills to organize and apply the feedback provided to them (Denault, Hintz, & Thielges, 2017).
Most studies on writing feedback for international students center on written corrective feedback, which focuses almost exclusively on grammatical issues (see Ferris, 1995; Hyland, 2000; Bichener & Knoch, 2008; Rao, 2017; Kim & Emelianova, 2019; Lee & Mohebbi, 2021). The focus on students’ ability to correct problematic grammatical structures typically aligns with the goal of preparing students for the high stakes English-language exams they must take in order to gain admittance to English-language universities. The goal is to pass the test, and the test prizes grammatical accuracy.
An issue arises, however, between the mismatch between international students’ expectations for English-language composition courses and the expectations of instructors of those courses, who, instead of focusing on only grammatical accuracy, often prioritize content and ideas. The understanding of “effective writing” that undergirds university composition courses is based in rhetorical studies, as opposed the the basis in linguistic studies that informs the writing instruction that international students typically encounter in their home countries. As a result, students often do not understand or do not know how to respond to instructor feedback on their writing, and they may be disappointed that they are not receiving more feedback on their language. This mismatch may lead to confusion and demotivation among students, hampering their ability to succeed.
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This study seeks to understand how students interact with the instructor feedback they are given on their writing, specifically targeting international students in their first year of study at an American university. It will examine students’ expectations for feedback, their opinions about the feedback they receive, and their understanding and utilization of the feedback to improve their writing.
Study participants will include UIC students enrolled in ELSI 041 English for Academic Purposes I (EAP I) and ELSI 043 English for Academic Purposes II (EAP II) during the fall semester of 2023. ELSI 041 is a ten-hour non-credit developmental English course designed for first-year undergraduate students in the UIC Global International Accelerator Program. ELSI 043 is a three-hour non-credit developmental English course designed for first-year undergraduate students in the UIC Global International Accelerator Program. Both courses focus on developing students’ academic writing skills; they utilize a scaffolded approach to the writing process in which students receive targeted constructive feedback at various points throughout the process.
This study will examine classroom artifacts, including writing assignment drafts, instructor feedback, and reflective journal entries, in order to more fully understand how international first-year undergraduate students in ELSI 041 and ELSI 043 perceive the feedback they receive on their writing and how they utilize that feedback throughout the revision process.
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Questions Investigated
The aim of this study is to understand how international students interact with the instructor feedback they receive on their writing assignments. Specifically, the study will focus on the following questions:
- How do students perceive instructor feedback (do they have a generally positive or negative view of feedback, do they understand the feedback they are receiving, and are they motivated by the feedback to improve their writing drafts)?
- How do students utilize instructor feedback in their writing process (to what extent do students use the feedback they have received, and to what extent do the revisions students make based on instructor feedback improve their writing)?