| Author: | Chen, Chuanren |
| Title: | Written and oral-conferencing corrective feedback and EFL writing development : the role of individual differences |
| Advisors: | Kim, Sun-A (CBS) |
| Degree: | DALS |
| Year: | 2024 |
| Department: | Faculty of Humanities |
| Pages: | xii, 198 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The enhancement of writing proficiency of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners through the application of written corrective feedback (WCF) has been extensively investigated in numerous empirical studies. This thesis aimed to investigate the effectiveness of WCF in the written and oral-conferencing forms on EFL learners’ writing development and examine the roles of learners’ working memory (WM), language aptitude (LA), and learner engagement in the WCF effectiveness. This study involved 79 EFL learners from a university in China and they were randomly divided into three groups (the written CF, the oral-conferencing CF, and the control group). The thesis addressed three research questions: 1. Do writing performances differ among the three groups? 2. Do learner individual differences (i.e., WM, LA) predict writing performance in the two experimental groups? 3. How do the learners of the two experimental groups engage with the teacher’s WCF cognitively, behaviourally, and emotionally? Across 16 weeks, the two experimental groups received three sessions of feedback, and all three groups completed the pre-test, the immediate post-test (one week after the final treatment), and the delayed post-test (two months after the final treatment). Participants in the two experimental groups completed a WM test, an LA test, and a learner WCF engagement questionnaire. Furthermore, six participants from the two experimental groups joined stimulated recall interviews on the following day of their revision and semi-structured interviews in the final week. The results showed that compared to the control group, the written and oral-conferencing WCF significantly improved learners’ writing performances, with a more pronounced content effect in the oral-conferencing WCF. Individual difference factors showed various results. First, WM predicted the language improvement of the written group at the delayed post-test. Second, in LA, spelling clues (SC), measuring learner’s readiness for vocabulary learning, contributed to the language improvement of the written group in the delayed post-test. Paired associates (PA), measuring learner’s rote memory, contributed to the language gains of the oral-conferencing group in the immediate post-test. Finally, as for learner engagement, both quantitative and qualitative data revealed that learners of the oral-conferencing group demonstrated a deeper level of cognitive (e.g., noticing and understanding the error, evaluating and planning the revision, employing the feedback in future writing) and behavioural engagement (e.g., revision behaviours and strategies) with greater variability in emotional engagement (e.g., overall attitudes toward the effectiveness of the feedback and fluctuations of their emotional responses to the feedback) compared to the written group. This thesis contributes to WCF research with empirical evidence for the WCF effectiveness and explores the roles of learner’s cognitive and affective factors in two different WCF approaches. The findings of this thesis suggest strong pedagogical implications for EFL writing teachers on how to utilize their feedback as a strong tool to improve learner’s feedback agency and writing skills effectively. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8069.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.8 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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