Korean University Students’ Responses to Direct and Indirect Feedback in Writing

The purpose of this study was to investigate students’ feedback preference to provide student-friendly instruction for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students. Specifically, the researcher was concerned with students’ reactions to receiving direct and indirect feedback through their experiences of taking two different courses where they had chances to revise their writing samples based on direct or indirect feedback. 50 students at Y university participated in this study and they were asked to complete the questionnaire. 10 of the participants were also interviewed. The results revealed that from students’ perspectives, direct feedback was efficient considering affective factors, such as confidence, security, interest, and motivation and both direct and indirect feedback were helpful to understand learning strategies involved in writing processes. However, when it comes to learning outcomes, they felt that indirect feedback gave them more benefits. In addition, they also expressed that receiving indirect feedback was more advantageous to them because it provided them with a meaningful learning environment. In sum, it was found that both types of feedback had a positive impact on students’ writing processes and to create a more effective learning environment, the following two pedagogical implications were suggested. First, when giving feedback, teachers should consider students’ self correction abilities to provide them with appropriate types of feedback. Second, having more chances to meet students outside the classroom in the form of individual writing conference will be suggested to clear up ambiguity on the part of students.