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Browsing Thesis/Dissertations | ތީސީސް އަދި ޑިސަރޓޭޝަންސް by Author "Sameer, Khadheeja Mohamed"

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    Student's percertion of written corrective feedback : a case study of pre-university ESL learners
    (Islamic University of Maldives, 2019-01) Sameer, Khadheeja Mohamed
    As the world continually attempts to cater to the needs of a globalizing community, the need for learning a Lingua Franca – a common language of communication for speakers of different mother tongues – has become imperative. Hence, English is taught around the world as a Second Language to speakers of other languages. In language teaching pedagogy, feedback is crucial for ESL students to reach their desired target language competency. However, to be most effective, feedback must be designed to cater to the students’ individual needs, and in a way that they would understand and accept the feedback, especially during the pre-university stage. This is because pre-university learners are expected to be self-oriented, autonomous learners, and hence, feedback is an essential element to prepare them for this. A myriad of literature suggests that effective feedback can only be given when educators understand how individual students perceive the feedback they are given. Unfortunately, there are no published studies on the Maldivian students’ perception of feedback till date. Therefore, a qualitative case study design that adopts the interpretive research methods was used to understand how Maldivian pre-university students expected, understood and reacted to written corrective feedback (WCF). Focus group discussion and stimulated recall sessions were used as instruments to collect relevant, authentic, and triangulated data from a sample of six students. The findings indicated that the students of the selected institute felt appreciated and encouraged when the lecturers gave feedback. On the other hand, they felt quite apprehensive when the lecturers failed to provide enough feedback, or any at all. This indicated that the students highly regarded feedback in their learning. Also, it was found that the participants had preferences and expectations of feedback and how it must be provided. Unlike most of the studies on student preferences in feedback around the world, Maldivian students preferred focused indirect feedback to be given on errors in their draft work. And finally, it was found that the students tend to avoid uptake of the feedback if they disagreed with the lecturer. Moreover, they disregarded the feedback if the lecturer had not provided enough evidence of the error. In the cases of successful uptake, the students used the feedback mostly to avoid repeating the same errors, while some students also reflected on the feedback to repeat the same effective points that the lecturers had indicated as positive evidences. Therefore, it is advisable for educators to consider the students’ preferences when providing WCF so that it may cater the needs of the learners.