Don’t Get It Right, Just Get It Written: Making Feedback Work

Abstract

Writing is an essential skill for students, as it helps them meet persistently changing social and academic demands. They are often evaluated based on written assignments, reports, term papers, and essays. For second and foreign language learners, mastering writing is a very challenging task. Therefore, many of them find it the most difficult of the four skills. To encourage students to develop this crucial skill and consolidate their learning, providing them with clear feedback is essential. Most ESL and EFL teachers perceive feedback as paramount for students' improvement in this vital skill. However, providing effective feedback is a complex process, as many factors and issues have to be considered. This chapter deals with feedback from different angles. The aim is to demonstrate to teachers the most effective ways and alternatives of giving feedback with the aim of guiding them to choose what works best for their students under various circumstances.