Investigating ESL/EFL students’ approaches in response to feedback: A case study
Abstract
This case study investigated the revision processes of six upper-intermediate ESL/EFL learners with high motivation for improving their writing. It aimed to provide in-depth and detailed information related to the participants’ approaches to revision, and to analyse the participants’ texts and confirm the results from their own point of view. The study employed three data sources: structured and retrospective interviews, the students’ written texts, and the tutors’ written feedback. The students’ revised drafts were analysed using Faighly and Witte's (1981) taxonomy of revisions, which helped to clarify the dominant features of the students’ revisions. The findings showed that three students focused on surface-level changes (labelled as local-oriented students) and the other three focused on broader meaning-level changes (labelled as global-oriented students). This indicates that students need to be aware of the different revision strategies and the various ways they can use to incorporate feedback into their revision process.
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