Teacher-written feedback: Student perceptions, teacher self-assessment, and actual teacher performance

Most research in second language (L2) writing has focused on students’ perceptions more than teachers’ self-assessment of teacher-written feedback. This study's purpose was to investigate: (1) how much local and global written feedback teachers give, (2) how their self-assessments and students’ perceptions of this feedback coordinate, and (3) how well teachers’ self-assessments match their actual performance. Teachers and students in an intensive English as a second language (ESL) program were surveyed about their perceptions of teacher-written feedback on compositions. These surveys were compared to teachers’ actual written feedback. Results indicated that teachers’ self-assessments and student perceptions of teacher-written feedback coordinated well, although students perceived receiving more feedback than teachers perceived giving. The coordination between teachers’ self-assessment and actual performance was generally not as strong, indicating that teachers may not be completely aware of the amount of local and global feedback they give on first and later drafts. Moreover, unlike what they perceived themselves doing, teachers provided more feedback on local than global issues throughout the writing process. These findings are discussed in light of how teachers’ training affected their perception (but perhaps not performance) of providing written feedback and underscore the need for examining teachers’ self-assessments of their written feedback.