The Preferences of ESL Students for Error Correction in College‐Level Writing Classes

TLDR

Research on teacher feedback in second language writing shows that focusing on surface errors does not improve students’ writing, yet ESL students entering U.S. colleges often hold different expectations about what feedback will help them improve. This study argues that teachers and students must agree on what constitutes improvement in writing and that students’ expectations may need to be modified to benefit from feedback. The authors surveyed 100 freshman ESL composition students, asking them to evaluate which marking techniques, corrections, and feedback types they read, retain, and react to regarding form and content.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The work of researchers like Zamel (24) and Krashen (12) on the effectiveness of teacher feedback on second language writing does not support a focus on surface error to help students improve their writing. However, students of English as a Second Language (ESL) may come to U.S. institutions of higher education with a notion different from that of their teachers here about what kind of teacher responses will help them improve their writing. This paper presents the results of a survey of 100 ESL students in freshman composition classes, asking the students to analyze their sense of what kinds of paper marking techniques help them the most to improve their writing, which kinds of corrections they even read, which corrections they feel they retain best, and what reactions they have to positive and negative comments on both the form and the content of their writing. The results of this preliminary study suggest that these students equate good writing in English with error‐free writing and, therefore, that they want and expect their composition teachers to correct all errors in their written work. This paper argues that a given teacher and class of students must agree about what constitutes improvement in writing and suggests that students' expectations may need to be modified if students are to profit from teacher feedback on their compositions.