The Effect of the Beliefs of EFL Iraqi Writing Teachers on the Feedback of EFL Students’ Writing

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating the relationship between  EFL writing teachers' beliefs in their own abilities to teach EFL writing, and  to  examine  how  their  self-perceptions  of  efficacy  would  influence  their feedback to their students’ writing.  The present study is designed to examine the self- efficacy of (20) EFL writing instructors in Al-Muthanna University using as primary data sources a questionnaire and interviews and the feedback given on students’ writing samples.  Most of the data are analyzed using a constant comparative approach.  In addition, some of the data from the questionnaires and writing samples produced descriptive statistics. Findings are reported in a grounded theory format, with a description of a model of the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and the feedback they provided to their students’ writing.  The findings of this study suggests that in teaching college-level EFL writing,  teacher feedback on students’ writing was not influenced exclusively by their writing self- efficacy.  In the EFL writing context, teachers chose how they would give comments on students’ writing depending on whether they believed they could contribute to the students’ writing improvement.  In other words, their teaching efficacy in EFL writing played a more important role in determining how they provided feedback to their students’ writing.  The conceptions of their role as  EFL  writing  teachers  differed  depending  on  the  clarity  of  their  role, confidence in performing the role, and positive expectations about change in students’ writing. Two major conclusions were drawn from the data.  First,  college- level EFL writing instructors’ writing self-efficacy was high in English . However, their feedback did not reflect their efficacy beliefs about their own writing.  Second, in many aspects of giving feedback, it became important whether writing teachers had clear conceptions of the role they played in helping students improve their EFL writing or not.