چکیده:
In this study, the researchers investigated a critical aspect of EFL/ESL writing pedagogy-the impact of teacher written commentary on student writer’s earlier drafts. Compositions of 80 Iranian undergraduate English majors were commented on using a trio of imperatives, statements, and questions on both content and form. Overall, the results indicated that the comments in the imperative form helped students improve their EFL/ESL writing ability more than the other two types. However, the difference between statements and questions was found not to be significant. The findings of this study, once again, emphasized the need for EFL/ESL writing instructors to communicate to learners with appropriate types of written comments. Moreover, employing imperative sentences can orient student writers towards a more accurate (i.e. form-focused) and appropriate (i.e. content-focused) composition writing.
خلاصه ماشینی:
"Research Background With the advent of process-writing, studies on its various aspects stressed the need for ESL/EFL writing instruction to move to a process approach that would teach students not only how to edit but also to develop strategies to generate ideas, compose multiple drafts of their writing, deal with feedback whether received from the teacher or the peers, and revise their texts over the received feedback (Ashwell, 2000; Bitchener and Knoch, 2008, 2009; Ferris, 1995, 1997; Ferris, Pezone, Tade, and Tinti 1997; Hyland, 1998; Hyland and Hyland; 2001; Kroll, 2001; Lee, 2008; Paulus, 1999; Rahimi, 2009; Rashtchi and Mirshahidi, 2011; Reid, 1994; Sugita, 2006; Shin, 2008).
Students’ Perceptions and Preferences In order to find answer to the third research question, five students in each of the experimental groups were interviewed to state their perceptions of the received type of commentary, how well they implemented the feedback in their revisions, and if they had any difficulty interpreting the comments.
The positive answer to the first research question of the study based on ANOVA results of the pretest and posttest compositions is in line with the similar studies conducted in this field, and reminds the practitioners and writing instructors of their key responsibility to respond to ESL/EFL texts (Ferris, 1995; Hedgcock and Lefkowitz, 1994; Kepner, 1991; Lee, 2008; Paulus, 1999; Shin, 2003).
Unlike the other study which has ignored implementing form-focused feedback into the three commentary types, "… taking the term content to represent what a writer is trying to generate or express, the teacher researcher focused on meaning or thoughts and provided commentary for helping students explain, describe, or add details" (p."