The Effect of Teacher Feedback on Students' Writing Skills ‎in the Iraqi Classrooms

Abstract

This paper explores how teacher feedback influences the ‎performance of Iraqi EFL undergraduate students in writing at ‎Diyala University, Department of English Language. The study ‎investigates the nature of the feedback applied in writing classes ‎and how the feedback affects the accuracy, organization, ‎motivation, and general writing development of the students. The ‎research is descriptive and analytical, and the data were gathered ‎using a sample of 80 fourth-year students in the form of a ‎structured questionnaire with 15 items that were based on the ‎five-point Likert scale. Moreover, (15) students were interviewed ‎in semi-structured interviews to obtain a better understanding of ‎the perception and experience of learners regarding teacher ‎feedback. The results indicate that most of the Iraqi EFL students ‎have positive attitudes towards teacher feedback, as they believe ‎that it is a key element in helping to detect mistakes, enhance ‎grammar and vocabulary, and better structure ideas.‎ The findings also show that clear, detailed, and timely ‎feedback has a strong positive effect on the confidence and ‎motivation of students to revise their writing. Another aspect that ‎students are keen on is detailed feedback with explanations as ‎opposed to short-term corrections. Nonetheless, certain issues ‎were found, including the inability to interpret ambiguous ‎remarks and the decreased usefulness of feedback that is delayed. ‎