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Students’ Perceptions About Teachers’ Written Feedback on Writing in a Moroccan University Context

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Feedback in L2 English Writing in the Arab World

Abstract

There is no doubt that writing is one of the most difficult skills for both teachers and students. Equally, there is a consensus that feedback is a crucial element meant to promote students’ performance in writing. Focused feedback allows learners to discover their weaknesses and strengths, to use the teachers’ instructions, and eventually to identify and address their problems and errors in order to improve their academic writing skill. However, few research papers have investigated the issue of feedback on EFL. The central issue in this chapter, therefore, is to discover students’ opinions and perceptions about their teachers’ feedback in a Moroccan higher education institution. The chapter also attempts to determine the extent to which teachers’ feedback is likely to enhance their students’ writing skills; that is, this study intends to show to what extent students benefit from their teachers’ feedback. To achieve this aim, we administered a questionnaire on the quality of teachers’ comments and students’ perception of these comments to 261 fifth-semester students in the English Department of the Sultan Moulay Slimane University Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Beni Mellal. The data generated by this study indicated that neither the students nor the teachers approached feedback in the ways we had expected. The main finding of this research paper is the students’ inability to carry out revision of their writing. We also discovered a lack of follow-up activities which demonstrates that the writing process is not given the required attention.

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Appendix

Appendix

Questionnaire for Students

We would like to ask you to help us by answering the following questions concerning foreign language learning. This survey is conducted to better understand how students perceive their teachers’ feedback. This is not a test so there are no “right” or “wrong” answers and you do not even have to write your name on it. We are interested in your personal opinion. Please give your answers sincerely, as only this will guarantee the success of the investigation. Thank you very much for your help.

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Ouahidi, M., Lamkhanter, F. (2020). Students’ Perceptions About Teachers’ Written Feedback on Writing in a Moroccan University Context. In: Ahmed, A., Troudi, S., Riley, S. (eds) Feedback in L2 English Writing in the Arab World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25830-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25830-6_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

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