EXAMINING WRITTEN FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS' THESES: A TEACHER'S REFLECTION

Anna Marietta da Silva

doi:10.37301/culingua.v4i1.134

Authors

Anna Marietta da Silva Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37301/culingua.v4i1.134

Keywords:

reflection, written corrective feedback, writing, teacher's professional development

Abstract

This paper presents a reflection on an English teacher’s written feedback. This reflective study aims at evaluating the teacher’s written feedback practices. It adopts a qualitative approach, in which the author did a self-reflection of her own written feedback (Hamilton, Smith & Worthington, 2008) to her students’ thesis proposals and drafts (Walsh & Mann, 2015). The small study intends to seek answers of these questions: (1) what can be reflected from the teacher’s written feedback to her students’ theses drafts, and (2) what changes have been made as a result of the reflection? The objects of the reflection are two sets of written feedback that the teacher provided to two students’ thesis drafts and another two series of written feedback given to two students’ thesis proposal drafts between 2020 to 2022. Through the reflection of her own written feedback, the author found several issues:1) limited understanding of the concept of EMI and essence of literature review, (2) lack of synthesizing skills and skills in making the synthesis coherent with research questions and research methods design, (3) low organization skills, (4) and limited knowledge about research instrument protocols. Based on the reflection the author has made several changes, including giving a series of critical questions to stimulate and check student’s understanding of the theme/concept and of coherence between the synthesis, research questions, and research methods, and providing emphases on students’ understanding of the research instrument protocols prior to pilot study. This small reflective study implies the need for making reflection practice an important element of a teacher’s professional development.

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