This study examined student-initiated feedback during writing workshops in beginning French classes over two semesters. The researchers found that students predominantly asked linguistic questions about vocabulary and syntax. Students also often asked undirected questions seeking confirmation that their work was correct. Overall, students felt the feedback helped them complete their writing tasks and learn. The high proportion of linguistic questions may reflect the students' low proficiency level. Further research could examine students at higher levels and focus on one class over time.

1. A Second Look at Student-Initiated
Feedback in Foreign Language
Writing
ALISON YOUNGBLOOD
ELIZABETH GILTNER
MELANIE C. GONZALEZ
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
SSTESOL 2012, ORLANDO, FL

2. Warm up activity
 In a writing class, what questions do your students
often ask?
 Turn to the person next to you and brainstorm 2-3
questions your learners often ask you.

3. Objectives
 Provide insight into what
beginning foreign language
writers request help with from
instructors
 Detail challenges in
qualitative/observational
research for new academics

4. Current Literature on Error Correction in Writing
• Stages of L2 development as evidenced in writing
• Cognitive and metacognitive perspectives of error
Researchers correction
• Explicit vs. Implicit vs. Content-only Corrections
Practitioners
• Evaluating writing portfolios to see changes over time
• Students‟ perspectives of error correction have not been
Students
added to the literature in any meaningful way

5. Background
 Conducted the study over the course of two
semesters
 First study – took place in Fall 2011
 Second study – took place in Spring 2012
 Rationale for 2nd study
 Large group of non-participants
 Wanted to follow one class only
 Removed camera from class – would this change dynamic?

6. Research Questions
 Fall 2011 study:
 During workshop style writing assignments, do student-initiated
interactions with the instructor tend to focus on linguistic or
content items?
 Following the workshop, how do students feel the type of
feedback they requested helped them achieve their language
learning goals for that particular class session?
 What are students’ perceptions of the efficacy of the feedback
they requested during the workshop?

7. Modifications to Research Questions
 For our second run of this study, we decided to focus
on the first research question.
 Spring 2012 study
 During workshop style writing assignments, do student-
initiated interactions with the instructor tend to focus on
linguistic or content items?
 Following the workshop, how do students feel the type of
feedback they requested helped them achieve their language
learning goals for that particular class session?

8. Informant Profile
 Undergraduates in their
first semester of French at a
large southeastern
university
 Fall 2011: n=53
 Spring 2012: n=28
 18-20 years old
 Juniors
 Predominantly monolingual
English speakers

9. Class Profile

10. Methods
Access to participants Researcher = Instructor
Data collection during Demographic Survey
writing workshop Observation/Field Notes
Audio-recording
Follow-up Interviews
Data Analysis Transcribe student-teacher interactions when related
to student-initiated questions in full field notes
Comparison of full field notes between researchers to
create master field notes
Independent coding of master field notes and follow-
up interviews based on themes
Check for reliability among researchers
Discussed issues in code assignment with professor

11. Findings (in Progress)
 Preliminary findings revealed the following
conclusions based on our three research questions:
Research Question #1
During workshop-style writing assignments, do student initiated
interactions with the instructor tend to focus on linguistic or
content items?
 Linguistic questions prevailed with vocabulary & syntax being
the top concerns for students
 Undirected questions were also often asked (i.e. “Can you
check?/Is this right?”)

12. Results
60
50
40
n Linguistic
n Content
30 n Undirected Question
n Directions What to write
Undirected
20
Directions
10
0

13. Findings (in Progress)
 Preliminary findings revealed the following
conclusions based on our three research questions:
Research Question #2
Following the workshop, how do students feel the type of
feedback they requested helped them achieve their language
learning goals?
 Overall, informants were pleased with the feedback citing the
instructor helped them to self-discover answers or gave explicit
feedback when needed.

14. Findings (in Progress)
 Preliminary findings revealed the following
conclusions based on our three research questions:
Research Question #3 (From Fall 2011 study)
What are students’ perceptions of the efficacy of the feedback
they requested during the workshop?
 Informants felt the feedback they received helped them complete
the task at hand.
 Example: “It was exactly what I needed”.

15. Findings (in progress)
 Since the informants in the study were beginning
learners of French, we hypothesize their lack of
vocabulary and grammar knowledge led to the
prevalence of linguistic-based questions.
 Their low level of proficiency and uncertainty in the
language could also explain the large number of
questions soliciting the instructor to “check their
work” or asking “is this right?”

16. Implications and Further Research
 Multiple researchers- Are we all doing the same
thing during field observations?
 Replicate with higher proficiency students
 Video was unnecessary-audiotapes with field notes
more than enough
 Large concentration of non-consenters in one class
 Two different classes, two different „personalities‟
during Fall 2011 study. Better to look at one class
over a longer period of time.
 Formulating semi-structured interview questions to
extract detailed answers

17. Contact us!
 Alison Youngblood a.youngb@knights.ucf.edu
 Elizabeth Giltner elizabeth.giltner@ucf.edu
 Melanie Gonzalez m.gonzalez@knights.ucf.edu