Teacher’s Corrective Feedback

Writing is an important aspect in second language learning. Through writing, a learner can gain knowledge about the conventions of writing in the target language, especially if a reader is engaged to provide feedback on it. In classroom context, a teacher is responsible to correct and provide comments on students’ writing. It is not an easy job and in fact, it has always been a challenge for most language teachers. Ferris (2007) admits that “responding to student writing is one of the most challenging aspects of the writing instructor’s job, and it is certainly the most time-consuming” (p. 165). That is, not only challenging, correcting students’ writing also requires time. Reid (1993) pointed out that there are different major roles that an ESL (English for Second Language) writing teacher plays; namely, coach, judge, facilitator, evaluator, interested reader and copy editor. In other words, an ESL writing teacher does not only teach students how to produce quality writing and then evaluate it but s/he is to also patiently read their work and be able to provide some feedback on it.  In this case, it can be concluded that an ESL writing teacher’s duty is to assist learners improve their writing in accordance with students’ needs by guiding, facilitating, evaluating, reading and editing their work. Clearly, correcting and providing feedback on students’ writing is a must-do task of ESL teachers.