Online ESL Students' Feedback Preferences and Perceptions

This doctoral project delves into the perceptions of online adult ESL students regarding teacher feedback. The research explores the impact of different feedback types, including coded, uncoded, direct, and indirect methods, on student learning and writing skill development. The study aims to understand student preferences for feedback, comparing focused versus unfocused approaches and examining how feedback influences their editing skills and grammar knowledge. The project highlights the importance of aligning teacher feedback strategies with student expectations to create a supportive and efficient learning environment, ultimately contributing to the improvement of ESL teaching practices and student outcomes. The research employs a qualitative, phenomenological approach, focusing on interviews with ESL students from diverse backgrounds to gain insights into their experiences and perspectives.

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CMP-9700E

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Project 8
Doctorial Comprehensive Assessment
Faculty Use Only

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Table of Contents
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THIS FORM MUST BE COMPLETELY FILLED IN..............................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................4
BACKGROUND.............................................................................................................................................4
PROBLEM STATEMENT................................................................................................................................8
PURPOSE STATEMENT.................................................................................................................................9
RESEARCH QUESTIONS..............................................................................................................................10

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QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN ..........................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................15
INTRODUCTION
Research suggested that teachers should consider the intention and perceptions of the
ESL students and should teach the students how to respond to feedback properly (Min, 2013).
Suggestions to improve essentially helped students with feedback (Dowden et. al., 2013).
Teachers who provided more feedback to students helped them improve in writing pieces (Min,
2013).
A study by Min (2013) which actually concentrated on the teaching of one educator,
exhibited that the amount of feedback she hoped to give was not exactly what she delivered. She
did offer a sufficient amount of feedback but with only half the comments for suggestions. Her
comments were comprehensive and made suggestions 89% of the time. She noted different
kinds of feedback. Results showed that student’s appreciated more feedback because it helped fix
mistakes (Min, 2013).
BACKGROUND
There are several different strategies for teachers to provide English as a second language
or English as a foreign language for student’s written corrective feedback, but the focus is on the

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types of feedback in ESL. Different types of feedback include coded, uncoded, selective and
comprehensive.
Uncoded feedback does not have a code. The teacher can simple write the number of
mistakes made and leave it up to the student to find them and fix them. The student only knows
that there is an error made. Direct feedback involves the teacher correcting the student and telling
them what the mistake was. The teacher can also give an example. Indirect feedback means the
teacher tells the student there is a mistake, but leaves the student to understand what the error is
and how to fix it one his own(Dowden et. al., 2013).
Students must give their opinions of correcting errors so that they can improve their
learning and development (Mawlawi-Diab, 2015). Zhan (2016) discovered that students were
confused of corrections on expressions they had made. The teacher pointed out a correction in a
student related to grammatical errors in English subject but did not explain why it was wrong.
This does not help the student to improve in accuracy. Four out of six students did not
understand why their expressions were wrong and two out of six did not know how to correct
them. One student mentioned the mistake may be repeated because of feedback lacking details
and direction (Zhan, 2016). Furthermore, when student’s preference of feedback does not match
teachers’ strategies for feedback, students are confused because they may not understand the
feedback given from teachers. For example, if a teacher circles a mistake and writes “S.V.
agreement” the student may not know what that means. This could result in confusion for the
student and the teacher (Amrhen & Nassaji, 2018).
How students react to teacher feedback and the type of feedback they prefer is important
to understand because it will create greater impacts on student’s education and overall
experience. Seker & Dincer (2014) found that students wanted teachers to focus on all types of

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errors. Some students said that teachers focused on grammar, but they wanted the teachers to
also give comments about vocabulary so they can select the correct words.
Furthermore, the type of feedback preferred is very important to examine. Studies found
that students preferred constructive feedback which is detailed and timely (McMartin-Miller,
2014).Other research found that students wanted personalized advice on how to improve their
work (Dowden et. al., 2013). Researchers found that the indirect method is better for students
learning because it allows the students to think of the answer and solve problems (Dowden et.
al., 2013; Eslami, 2014; McMartin-Miller, 2014). Jamalinesairi et. al. (2014) discovered that
both direct and indirect feedback helped EFL students’ writing pieces improve over a period of
time with specified error type correction used. Other researchers found that coded indirect
feedback improved students’ long-term retention and correctness because it allowed them to
problem solve (Sadat et al., 2015).
Frear and Chiu (2015) conducted a study on Chinese college students which focused on
indirect feedback with focused and unfocused written corrective feedback. There were three
groups in the experiment, focused indirect, unfocused indirect and the control group with did
receive have any corrective feedback. Students had to take three exams. The immediate post-test
showed that the focused indirect group and unfocused indirect group did better than the control
group. The focused indirect group showed improvement overtime from the pre-test to the
immediate post-test. Comparing the three groups, the focused indirect group excelled. The
focused direct group did slightly better than the unfocused indirect group; however it was not a
substantial difference. Therefore, it can be stated that both focused indirect and direct feedback
are helpful forms of feedback.
When there is a focus on a certain type of error, the error can be observed and practiced

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overtime. The students from the experiment done by Frear and Chiu (2015) were put into groups
and asked to identify verb tense errors, particularly those in the past tense. The students learned
from the errors through peer learning. Students helped each other understand the meaning of the
word and fix the verb tense form. This method is a form of indirect feedback. The teacher does
not tell the student what the error is, but allows the student to identify it and fix it without the
teachers help. Teachers collected the writing pieces and marked as needed. This was all done
prior to the exams. Indirect feedback was assessed to be helpful to students who do not require
teachers to explain the errors. These students were above intermediate level (Eslami, 2014; Min,
2013). Written feedback is important because it helps students develop their writing skills and
improve. Students will react based on the feedback they receive. The feedback can motivate
students to find sources to help them improve in their writing .Coded feedback includes the type
of error made and the code. For instance, if the student made a verb tense/verb form error, the
instructor will write VT or VF and explain what the errors(Hyland, 2018).
Feedback helps in encouraging participation of the students. Abadikhah and Ashoori
(2012) conducted an experiment on 24 male Intermediate level students from Iran who were put
into two groups, one having no feedback and the other having feedback, found that feedback
assisted with test scores. Students had tasks and worked in groups. A t-test was used and showed
results and test to gather information about performance during tasks. Students who got feedback
could discuss with partners in class and collaborate. The test helped to identify that feedback
assist in motivating the ESL students to bring development in themselves. Furthermore, this test
also helped in collecting primary information related to topic or subject of the present research.
Feedback helps students improve their grades. McMartin-Miller (2014) conducted studies
on both teachers and students in a writing class. He found that students wanted complete

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feedback. One student who had a teacher give him minimal feedback thought it was because he
made too many mistakes. It is important to note that teachers must review how they give
feedback and what it means before doing so. All of the students in the study said that all
feedback was important to them. Students preferred more feedback because it helped them
improve theirs scores for the final paper. Hence, the need for feedback is very important.
Most researchers have conducted quantitative research to measure students’ perceptions
of feedback and preference of teacher feedback. Elwood and Bode (2014) used a Likert-scale
and open ended questions to understand the feedback students preferred and their reactions to the
feedback. Seker and Dincer (2014) also used a Likert-scale.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The general problem is that students lack editing skills and grammar knowledge because
of misunderstanding the significance of teacher feedback (Nguyen, 2018) . Zhou (2018)
discovered in four semi structured interviews on 19 students from Canada, that learners wanted
to improve in grammar, but were unaware of how to do so. The purpose of this qualitative,
phenomenological study will be to understand what ESL students’ perceptions of written
feedback were and the type of feedback they preferred (Nguyen, 2018). The transcribed and
coded interviews revealed that 19% of comments from students in the interviews were about
word choice (Nordin, 2017).. They were confused on what words to use in their writing. Students
even wrote short sentences so they could avoid making errors because they did not know how to
write complex sentences without making mistakes. Most of the comments discussed by students
were on verb tense and verb form errors (Zhou, 2018).
The specific problem is students’ perceptions of teacher written feedback often do not
match the teachers’ comments for improvement(Jacobs and Delante, 2017). Mc-Martin Miller

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(2014) conducted interviews both teachers and students The teachers all used different methods
of providing feedback to students(Diab, 2016). A comment was received from a student who
claimed that he believed the teacher did not correct all his comments because he made too many
mistakes (Yu, Wang and Teo, 2018). Two out of six students believed that one of the teachers
who delayed error correction to the second draft did so to save time, but it was because she
wanted the students to recognize their errors first (Mc-Martin-Miller, 2014).
Most researchers have often looked at the perceptions of teachers on written feedback
(Pearson, 2018). The gap in the research is that researchers have not compared the perception of
students who obtain focused versus unfocused feedback. Obtaining this information would
provide students editing training, recognize students ‘preferences for feedback, and improve
efficiency for teacher feedback (McMartin-Miller, 2014).
Han (2017) expressed the need for research on the learner’s belief about written
corrective feedback. Azad (2016) found a need to research students’ perceptions about the
written corrective. McMartin-Miller (2014) expressed the need for research on comparing
focused and unfocused corrective feedback. By researching students’ perceptions of teacher
written feedback, teachers can understand learners’ expectations and therefore create a
supportive and efficient learning environment.
PURPOSE STATEMENT
It is important to understand students’ perceptions of teacher feedback because it will
help teachers on giving useful feedback so students can develop quality writing. Furthermore, it
allows students to feel as though their voices are heard, hence encouraging them in the
classroom.

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The target population for this study will be 10 online adult ESL students between 25-35
years old. They are from Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines. The students learn at online
language schools (Schütze and et.al., 2017). The hopes of this research is to assist teachers in
understanding students’ perceptions and the type of feedback in order to create a better teaching
environment that is supportive and encouraging. The research or study on these students will
help to understand the importance of teachers' feedback and how the current methods are
affecting the learning of students. The sample of ESL students in this research will help to
examine reasons for errors and grammatical problems these students are facing (Gan and Yang,
2018).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study will be to understand what
students’ perceptions of written feedback were and the type of feedback they preferred.
Therefore, the researcher will ask students to obtain answers about the type of errors they think
teacher’s should mark, how the teachers should give feedback, and how well teachers have been
in explaining feedback and understanding student’s intentions of their writing.
Question 1: What are the perceptions of online ESL students regarding the type of feedback they
prefer from teachers?
Question 2: What are the perceptions of online ESL students regarding the amount of feedback
they prefer from teachers?
Question 3: What are the perceptions of online ESL students regarding preference for teachers
methods of delivering feedback?

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QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN
ESL students faces a major problem in understanding teachers' feedbacks that
affects their learning and development. The qualitative research through sample of these students
will help in understanding the perceptions The qualitative research design for this study will be a
phenomenological research design. Because the focus is on understanding students’ perceptions
of teacher feedback, the researcher needs to use a qualitative method Qualitative method is often
utilized to understand perceptions and views, It helps in offering visions to various research
problems and assists in creating theories or concepts for the research. This method assist in
discovering individuals views and new thoughts. In order to identify patterns and create logic of
phenomena (Denzin & Lincoln, 2017). Using qualitative method is more appropriate that
quantitative method because An unstructured interview will be utilized in order to obtain all
sorts of ideas and experiences from the participants. The answers of participants will be
compared and analyzed for similarities and differences. The lived experiences will be used as
explanations. All the answers gathered to the questions will be scrutinized justly. Bracketing is
utilized since it helps the researcher put aside their thoughts or biases about the subject to avoid
contamination in the study (Mackmillian 2014, Yuksel & Yuldirim, 2015). Semi-structured
interview to understand students’ effective outlooks and type of feedback preferred. My research
will be entirely qualitative and focus on obtaining deeper and developed responses from online
adult esl students in order to understand the case at hand.
The lived experiences and person perceptions of the students will be used to give ESL
educators and anyone interested in understanding students’ perceptions of teacher written
feedback. From the interviews, the researcher will gain a better understanding if the students’
perceptions of teacher feedback match the teachers’ comments for improvement. The researcher

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will ask students open ended questions to obtain answers about the type of errors they think
teacher’s should mark, how the teachers should give feedback, and how well teachers have been
in explaining feedback and understanding student’s intentions of their writing.
An interview one on one is preferable than the focus group because the researcher
maintains control of the interview. With a focus group, the participants could monopolize the
discussion and lose focus of the topics. They could also influence others answers. However,
focus groups may encourage other participants to speak up. Structure interviewing is safer
because if an inexperienced person uses unstructured interviewing, the information obtained may
be useless (Krathwohl, 2018).
Data will be collected from the interviews. The interviews will include audio recording.
The interview will be transcribed. The answers to the open ended questions will be saved. The
researcher will keep a folder called, “field notes” which will obtain details about participants
answers (Sutton & Austin, 2015).
Once the researcher has transcribed the interviews, the process of coding can begin. The
researcher will identify subjects, themes, connections and dissimilarities. A software called
NVivo will be used to code the information. This will help save a lot of time and effort because
handwriting and searching for the information will be avoided. The researcher will develop
themes that will be drawn from codes in different transcripts in which will be used to show the
participants ideas under sections in the research paper (Sutton & Austin, 2015).
The sample population will be 10 adult ESL students from online learning schools. The
researcher will use non-probability, convenience sampling, by selecting adult ESL students from
her online classes. The participants will receive a voluntary invitation by email that gives a clear
description of the research and roles in the research. Students’ levels will range from beginner to

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advanced. Inclusion criteria include: males and females ages 20-40 years old, adult ESL students,
students levels beginner to advanced, and online learners (Lavrakas, 2008).
In order to maintain credibility and dependability, the research will reveal biases, beliefs
and any predictions early in the research. Ensuring Credibility of Qualitative Research, It is hard to
ensure that qualitative research is accurate or correct; therefore the following 4 aspects need to be taken
into consideration when conducting qualitative research:
1. Credibility/trustworthiness
2. Transferability
3. Dependability
4. Confirmability
These terms are used by Lincoln and Guba, to replace ‘reliability’ and ‘validity’, which are usually
linked to quantitative research.
Credibility/trustworthiness:
The credibility is involved in establishing that the results of the research are believable. This is a classic
example of ‘quality not quantity’. It depends more on the richness of the information gathered, rather than
the amount of data gathered. There are many techniques to gauge the accuracy of the findings, such as
data triangulation, triangulation through multiple analysts and ‘member checks’. In reality the
participants/readers are the only ones who can reasonably judge the credibility of the results ( Credibility
in research, 2018)
Transferability:
Transferability refers to the degree in which the research can be transferred to other contexts; this section
is defined by readers of the research. The reader notes the specific details of the research situation and
methods, and compares them to a similar situation that they are more familiar with. If the specifics are
comparable, the original research would be deemed more credible. It is essential that the original
researcher supplies a highly detailed description of their situation and methods.

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Dependability:
Dependability ensures that the research findings are consistent and could be repeated. This is measured
by the standard of which the research is conducted, analyzed and presented. Each process in the study
should be reported in detail to enable an external researcher to repeat the inquiry and achieve similar
results. This also enables researchers to understand the methods and their effectiveness (Dependability
in research, 2018.).
Confirmability
Confirmability questions how the research findings are supported by the data collected. This is a process
to establish whether the researcher has been bias during the study; this is due to the assumption that
qualitative research allows the research to bring a unique perspective to the study. An external researcher
can judge whether this is the case by studying the data collected during the original inquiry. To enhance
the confirmability of the initial conclusion, and audit trail can be completed throughout the study to
demonstrate how each decision was made.
The researcher will also use triangulation. Different data sources will be used. In addition
to the interviews, the researcher will also conduct an observation where the researcher uses
different types of feedback strategies and asks the students to give their perceptions at the end of
the classes. The researcher will have two group and individual classes at different times. With
the use of observations, this will help the researcher make connections and provide a clearer idea
of information provided (Creswell & Miller, 2000).
Observations can be made to understand how students respond to the teacher’s
feedback. This can be done as concealed interview where the students and teachers know they
are being observed, but are not told this every time. Eventually, they just forget they are being
observed. Because interviews will be done individually and within a group, this will give the

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researcher a better idea of the reactions being genuine. Moreover, interviews offer a holistic
understanding of the phenomena. This builds more validity and clarity (Kawulich, 2017).
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