Exploring secondary education teachers’ written corrective feedback practices and beliefs in L2 English within the Spanish context

Abstract

L2 writing research has shown that written corrective feedback (WCF) improves learners' writing (Benson & Dekeyser, 2019; Karim & Nassaji, 2018; Li & Roshan, 2019), and has a facilitative role in L2 learning (Bitchener, 2012, 2016; Bitchener & Ferris, 2012; Bitchener & Storch, 2016). By contrast, research on teachers' WCF practices and beliefs in L2 has been inconclusive with certain studies reporting total alignment between both (e.g., Lira-Gonzales et al., 2021); partial alignment (Mao & Crosthwaite, 2019); and a total lack of coherence between these two aspects of L2 writing (Lee, 2009). This exploratory study intends to shed light on these issues by scrutinizing the WCF practices of 4 Secondary Education teachers in 60 students' texts produced in L2 English, and their beliefs about their practices in semi-structured interviews. The qualitative analysis of the teachers' practices consisted of the identification of WCF points in the students' writings (Lee, 2009), and their categorization according to the different types of feedback established in the literature (Ellis, 2009). Quantitative analyses were also conducted and were based on different statistical tests. The qualitative analysis  of the teachers' beliefs followed thematic content analysis (Krippendorff & Bock, 2009). Results indicated that the teachers' WCF practices mainly comprised correction of micro-level errors that focused on linguistic forms. These practices also included direct and unfocused WCF regarding linguistic errors, and indirect and focused feedback on content errors. Although participants shared the belief that linguistic accuracy and feedback at both the micro and macro levels of textual production are the most relevant aspects of L2 writing, as well as the belief that students' reception of WCF is positive, they indicated that the latter hardly incorporate such feedback in subsequent writings. Results also showed that these teachers' practices and beliefs only aligned in the provision of unfocused WCF, which reflects the general absence of coherence between their WCF practices and beliefs. These findings may help raise L2 writing teachers' awareness of the potential mismatch between their practices and beliefs regarding the provision of feedback, so that they make adjustments that address their students' writing and language learning needs more efficiently.