Analyzing Corrective Feedback Practices and Perceptions of ESL Teachers: A Qualitative Study in a Private Secondary School in Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

Written corrective feedback (WCF) is a predominant but contentious practice in the ESL writing classroom because it is believed to be related to teachers' decisions and students' opportunity to notice, revise and regulate the language in use. This study examines the WCF practices and perceptions of ESL teachers in a private secondary school in Karachi, Pakistan focusing on the gap between what teachers perceive to be best practice in providing feedback and the actual feedback that is seen in marked student writing. A qualitative case study design was used in this research. The data sources were teacher questionnaire/interviews and document analysis of students' written assignments at the common genres in common schools including letter, essay, summary, character sketch and central-idea task across the grades VI-VIII. Four key themes of feedback form, feedback focus, genre sensitivity, and belief-practice congruence were examined using a process of thematic coding and writing-sample analysis. It is found that teachers appreciate WCF as a formative tool to enhance accuracy, confidence, self-correction, but class size, syllabus pressure, time constraints and varying degree of assessment literacy affect the implementation in the classroom. Both direct correction and indirect marking emerged, and feedback most often focused on grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure and on the genre format. For written, while teachers reported that they were doing developmental feedback that was responsive to the genre, written samples indicated that the depth, specificity, and uniformity of feedback was somewhat inconsistent across grade levels and within tasks. The findings of this study highlight the need for a school-level WCF policy, consistent teacher feedback practices, common genre-specific rubrics, and an equitable emphasis on language accuracy, organization, content development, and learners' uptake of feedback.