Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

World Languages, Literatures and Linguistics

Committee Chair

Sharon Wilkinson.

Committee Co-Chair

Frank W. Medley

Committee Member

Dara G. Shaw

Abstract

Most of the literature on written feedback to date has attended to feedback techniques and the effects of such approaches on students' writing skills. Little emphasis has been placed on students' perspectives on teachers' written feedback. For this reason, the present study investigated how adult beginning students react to their teacher's written feedback on their Spanish compositions. The study used qualitative methods of data collection---questionnaires for the students, interviews with teachers and students and participant observations---in order to explore their reactions and perceptions. The findings show that the general positive reaction students had in relation to their teacher's written feedback was influenced by different factors such as the techniques their teachers used and the acceptance of their teacher's authority. An analysis of the findings was conducted through the perspective of "writing-as-process," which showed that the stages of the process---planning, drafting, revising and proofreading (Gardner, 1996)---were not treated with equal emphasis. Specifically, issues related to content and organization were largely overlooked in favor of grammatical corrections. Implications of these findings are also discussed.

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