Engagement with a Sequence of Feedback-Correction: A Case Study of Secondary School Students in Vietnam

Abstract

This exploratory study investigated Vietnamese secondary students’ engagement in a sequence of detecting, correcting, and rewriting tasks, and examined the factors affecting their engagement and/or disengagement in the process. The study draws on the principles of task-based instruction, involving eight mixed-ability groups (n = 31), and was designed to address student engagement with feedbackcorrection practices that has rarely been discussed in previous research and has therefore remained largely underexplored, especially in the context of Vietnam. Theoretical concepts of behavioral, cognitive, and social engagement were used to analyze data from audio recordings of students’ interactions and their written responses to open-ended questions. The analysis of data showed that the eight groups engaged behaviorally, socially, and cognitively in the process, although their engagement varied according to the learning tasks, the teacher’s intervention, peer support, English ability, and types of gaps. Findings from the eight-week intervention suggest teachers should consider factors which determine student engagement with feedback-correction practices. By offering students opportunities to act on specific language issues in their writing through detecting and correcting gaps and rewriting the corrected texts, engagement with feedback-correction practices can be useful in fostering accuracy development. This qualitative multiple-case study contributes new insights to the field by operationalizing the sequence of feedback-correction through collaborative learning to deeply understand students’ multidimensional engagement in the process from which implications for L2 writing and further research are discussed.