Investigating teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards implementing color-coded feedback to enhance EFL learners’ writing accuracy
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Date
2020
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Oum-El-Bouaghi
Abstract
In any pedagogical setting, learners' errors and teachers' corrective feedback are closely related thus; they go hand in hand. Notwithstanding the issue of the (in) effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) in EFL writing classes has been a debatable issue for a long time. Nowadays, however; the interest has shifted to how and what are the most effective techniques to provide written feedback that help learners in enhancing their writing accuracy without increasing their level of anxiety. Interestingly, the aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of implementing color-coded feedback on enhancing EFL learners' writing accuracy. In order to carry out this study, a descriptive method was applied in which two questionnaires have been used. The first one was given to both first and second-year students of English at Larbi Ben Mhidi University, Oum El Bouaghi. The second questionnaire was given to teachers of "written expression" at the same university. On the basis of the data gathered from both questionnaires, the findings showed that teachers and students did not appreciate providing/receiving feedback using the red pen. Furthermore, the findings go in the same direction of the research hypothesis that color-coded feedback is more effective than the traditional way in enhancing students' accuracy and that it motivates them and makes them receive critique on their writing more easily. In the same vein, we have deduced that students care about their teachers' feedback; yet, they appreciate their ego more than receiving feedback itself; thus, they dislike those methods which put them under pressure and raise their anxiety. For this reason, providing a suitable feedback that will have a positive effect on students' psyche is surely a bridge to a good writing results as colors function as a powerful information channel to the human cognitive system and have been found to play a significant role in enhancing memory performance, capture the attention (raise awareness) and retain the information; therefore, they should be considered as an alternative tool in providing written feedback to see their effectiveness.
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Keywords
Writing accuracy, Written corrective feedback, Writing error, Memory performance, Color-coded feedback