Feedback is considered an essential part of assessment and error correction in students learning. Giving feed-back to learners in the form of written comments, error corrections, teacher-student conferences or peer dis-cussions is a key aspect of EFL writing programs around the world (Ellis, 2009). Writing is a skill that has an effect on second language learning because it is a medium for communication and a mode of learning, thinking, and organizing information or ideas (Kurt & Atay, 2007). Providing feedback is the most appro-priate way to help second language learners develop their writing skills effectively (Chen, 2009). Shute, (2008) depicts that feedback plays a significant role in acquiring knowledge and skills in writing. Thus, giving effective feedback is an important characteristic of quality teaching (Leng, 2014). 

For teachers, it represents the largest allocation of time they spend as a writing instructor; and for students, positive feedback may be the most important com-ponent that will contribute to their success as writers (Ferris, 2004). If negative feedback is not conveyed appropriately by the teachers and if criticism is not positive it may make a student lose interest in writing once and for all (Karim & Ivy, 2011). According to Khan, (2003) teachers help students to become pro-ficient writers by building up their self-confidence and providing effective strategies to develop writing skills through feedback. In Bangladesh feedback is not given much importance. Students struggle to develop their writing skills as they seldom receive feedback in class-rooms. The impact of feedback is a necessity for the students to develop their writing skills (Cada, 2021). 

There are many studies which were conducted on how error corrections are provided, the type of feed-back and teachers- students beliefs about feedback prac-tices, but a very few studies cover the effectiveness of teachers feedback in improving students EFL writing skills in Bangladesh. Karim & Ivy, (2011) mention teachers in Bangladesh do not provide feedback fre-quently in classrooms, for that reason students do not understand the problems in their writing. This study focuses on tertiary level students struggle in Bangla-desh to identify their writing difficulties as they rarely receive enough feedback that are needed to develop their writing skills. Consequently, they are less moti-vated and feel nervous about their writing skills. It is assumed from these facts that it is necessary to have specific feedback in improving students written skills which will help them gain optimum proficiency in their written compositions. This study therefore began with the following objectives: 

1) To understand students perceptions of tea-chers feedback in improving their writing skills.

2) To ascertain the frequency of feedback received by the students. 

3) To determine the impact of teachers feedback in improving students writing skills.

Literature Review

“Vygotskys concept of the Zone of Proximal Deve-lopment (ZPD) has been used extensively as the theoretical basis for numerous studies investigating the role of feedback in second language classrooms (Altstaedter & Doolitttle, 2014; Fithriani, 2017; Yu & Lee, 2014; Fithriani, 2019). Vygotsky, (1978) compre-hensively defines his concept of Zone of Proximal Development. It is mostly cited as “The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem-solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Fithriani, 2019). Lightbown and Spada, (1999) examined that feedback provides “an indication that the use of their target language is in-correct (172). Truscott, (1996) speculates that stu-dents who learn English as a second language have negative attitudes towards error correction. However, Semke, (1984) mentions that most students prefer to receive feedback and consider it very beneficial to inspire them and it decreases their grammatical errors and boosts their quality of writing rather than being harmful or offensive. Radecki and Swale, (1988) exa-mined students attitudes toward feedback along with the role as learners in the development of writing. Their survey on fifty-nine EFL students of various back-grounds showed positive and appreciative reac-tions to error corrections. These students also pre-ferred direct correction from teachers. Long et al. (1998) defines corrective feedback as ‘positive evi-dence and ‘negative evidence. ‘Positive evidence provides knowledge about what is grammatical and acceptable in target language, whereas ‘negative evi-dence gives knowledge about what is grammatically incorrect. 

Ferris and Roberts, (2001) studied the effects of feedback between feedback and no feedback groups and established that the group who received feed-back significantly outperformed the no-feedback group (Ferris and Roberts, 2001; Karim, 2013). Their fin-dings have similarity to the findings of Chandler, (2003) which looked into the effect of different kind of error corrections in students writing. His results dis-covered that the group which received corrective feedback showed substantial improvement in the accuracy and the fluency in their writings, whereas the control group which did not receive any feedback consequently did not improve the accuracy. Wu, (2003) finds teachers feedback is useful and accept-able to students. His study shows that nearly 60% students expressed that they would correct mistakes and read teachers comments when their journals were returned. Similar findings also confirm students are prone to accept teachers feed-back because it helps to revise errors in their writing skills. Feedback facilitates students error corrections and increases their writing fluency. Feedback also makes them feel anxious while writing journals (Cohen & Cavalcanti, 1990). Accor-ding to Wulf et al. (2010) the timely feedback has a significant influence on the effectiveness of feedback. His study on Australian learners reveal that students wanted early feedback because it gave them greater opportunity to improve their writing performance. There is an inconclusive debate on which features of students writing should receive teacher feedback and which areas should be left alone and cannot be up-graded. Zaman et al. (2012) finds that in Bangladesh, students mainly receive feedback on grammar rather than general comments regarding their written tasks. Students also prefer feedback on the use of their language, as they find them more beneficial, than feed-back on the content. Sameera et al. (2016) explored the effect of corrective feedback on students writing, specifically in subject-verb agreement. The major finding of their quantitative study reveals that pro-viding correct forms of feedback can help improve grammatical errors in the revised versions. Karim & Ivy, (2011) also examined the nature of teachers feed-back in second language writing classrooms of some private universities in Bangladesh. Their study reveals that feedback provides a transparent idea on students achievements and help them review their mistakes. Zamel, (1985) observe that teachers focus mostly on sentence-level grammatical errors, and their comments are mostly vague and prescriptive. Keh, (1990) com-ments that grammar instruction cannot improve lang-uage. Therefore, teachers should emphasis on ‘higher order concerns (Karim & Ivy, 2011).

This is a mixed method descriptive research study. “Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-fin-ding inquiries of different kinds (Creswell, 2002).  The mixed method study collects and analyzes both quantitative and qualitative data. The respondents of this study are selected using convenience sampling technique. “Convenience sampling is a nonprobability or nonrandom sampling where members of the target population meet certain practical criteria, such as easy accessibility, geographical proximity, availability at a given time, or the willingness to participate are included for the purpose of the study (Dornyei, 2007 and Etikan et al., 2016).  Since this research has been conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, conven-ience sampling method was implemented to maintain physical distancing to stop corona virus from sprea-ding.90 undergraduate level students were selected as respondents among who 58 were female and rest of the 32 respondents were male. All of them are the students of English language and their age range between 19 and 25. 

Respondents are students of four private universities (Notre Dame University Bangladesh, East-West Uni-versity, North-south University, BRAC University) and two public universities (Jahangirnagar University and Jagannath University). To accomplish the object-ives of the research a semi-structured questionnaire was prepared using Google form. Questionnaires con-sisted of 20 questions. Both close and open-ended questions were designed. The questionnaire was first given to a faculty member of Notre Dame University Bangladesh for validation. After the approval, the questionnaires were sent for pilot testing. The students who had similar characteristics as the respondents took part in the pilot test. Minor corrections were integrated after the pilot study. Questionnaires were then dis-tributed among the respondents to understand the actual scenario of feedback in Bangladesh.  The online survey link was shared across different online plat-forms (Facebook, WhatsApp, Gmail, and Messen-ger). The survey link was also posted on Facebook walls and Facebook friends who were studying in English department were requested to fill in the survey ques-tionnaires. 90 respondents participated in this study. Respondents were asked to give their opinions where necessary. While analyzing the qualitative data collec-ted from the open-ended questions, eight respondents was called over telephones to clarify their opinions. Phone calls were recorded and transcribed to be analyzed which have been included in the analysis and interpretation section. Data were analyzed in numerical and descriptive manner. The numerical data has been analyzed in a quantitative manner using Microsoft Excel and they are presented in pie chart, graph, and table to give a clear idea of the responses to the questions. Qualitative data have been described to understand the opinions of the students. 

Limitations of the study

The COVID-19 pandemic situation made it difficult to meet the respondents face to face. It was very chall-enging for the researchers to convince the respondents to take part in the study. Some questions remained unclear as the respondents did not care to clarify because of the physical distance. There were some difficulties while interpreting qualitative data as some respondents did not answer properly or completely which could have affected the validity of the research. However, the researchers tried to make the responses clear through phone calls. The responses could be different if the study was carried out another time. In the future this study can be carried for better validity, reliability and more comprehensive explanation of the situation. 

Data Analysis and Interpretation

The following data explain students perception of teachers feedback in improving their writing skills which was no. 1 objective of this study.

Preference of different types of feedback from tea-chers Fig 1: Preference of different types of feedback from teachers.

Fig 1 explains, the highest number of respondents i.e.  34 (37.8%) out of 90 prefer “a personal meeting with the teacher, while 27 (30.0%) preferred written com-ments and 29 (32.2%) opted for oral comments. The responses to the open-ended question express why students prefer a personal meeting with teachers:

a) It is inevitable for upgrading writing skills.

b) It is beneficial because problems are shared di-rectly and feedback is received immediately. Also, questions can be asked for more clarifica-tion at the same time. 

c) Sometimes feedback may either be too concise or less detailed if written or delivered orally espe-cially during online classes. In that case, a per-sonal meeting is comparatively preferable to the students.

d) A personal meeting helps understand the weak-nesses and also assists with possible solutions immediately. 

A respondent explains why he prefers a teacher-stu-dent meeting:

“Sometimes I may not understand the feedback properly but still, I dont ask the teacher because I feel shy and uncomfortable in front of so many students. So thats why I think personal meeting is more cons-tructive as it helps to create a strong communication between the teacher & the student. 

Another respondent expresses her opinion why she prefers a personal meeting. She states the following: 

“I prefer a personal meeting because sometimes I received feedback but it was not clear to me, I needed to know my flaws but after thinking that people will laugh at me, if I asked some silly questions then I restrained myself to ask questions in the classroom, so it would be better if I talked personally with my tea-cher.  

Whereas, 32.2% report that “oral comments” are beneficial. Respondents describe why they prefer oral comments. The comments are as follow:

a) An oral comment is beneficial as the teacher may not write detailed feedback but s/he can orally explain in detail where students can easily find their mistakes in the writing compositions.

b) The oral comment is better than the written comment. Its more specific and more effective for students.

Another respondent expresses why she prefers oral comments. Her comments are as following:  

‘As the written comments are usually found in exam script and when I return the script the written com-ments go with the scripts, it is hard for me to remem-ber all those comments, therefore, it has less impact on me and if the comments are oral then it hits my mind and thats why my opinion is for oral comment.

Another respondent gives his opinion about why he prefers oral comments:  

“Oral comments are beneficial because we can record them and can hear whenever we feel the necessity of it. While personal meetings with teachers also create a big impact on students but often we dont get enough time as teachers are busy because of their busy sche-dule so I feel Oral comments are better.

30.0% of respondents prefer “written comments” and explain that written comments are beneficial for them; they stated their views regarding their preference for “written comments”. The opinions are as follows:

a) Written comments are helpful because when we see our errors in our scripts that remain in our mind for a long time. 

b) It is usually short and specific which always helps students get the message from the teachers with-out miscommunication.

c) Written comments are beneficial since they speci-fically indicate the mistakes we make in our papers; thus, it is also easier for the students to understand their errors and resolve them. 

From Fig 1, it is understood that among all other feed-backs the majority prefer a teacher- student personal meeting and combination of both oral and written comments, because they find the scope to share their problems and can easily receive effective guideline.  Moreover, majority of the respondents do not like to receive grades only without any kind of feedback. 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the stu-dents perceptions about teachers feedback on their writing skills in EFL classroom, the frequency of feed-back on students written assignments, and the impact of teachers feedback on students written skills. It is evident from the findings that there is an enormous need for feedback in writing classes as 71.1% feel that the teachers feedback has positive impact on their academic life. However, this view is contradicted in some prior studies as they state feedback from the tea-cher is ineffective and students dont even care about them (Ferris, 1997; Zamel, 1985). 65.6% of students express that they read teachers comments carefully which also indicates that they really value receiving feedback in classroom. This result has similarity to Chiangs, (2004) study which reveals 13.3% of stu-dents “often read teachers feedback regarding their composition and 10% of students generally read it after their teachers give them their written works back (Kahraman & Yalvac, 2015). Nevertheless, this result doesnt fit Radecki & Swaless, (1988) research as they find students take grades in their written assign-ments more seriously than teachers remarks. The findings of this study also explain that feedback from teachers is central to developing writing skills. Feed-back from teachers is beneficial to students because it makes students understand in which area they need to work for improvement (Chaudron, 1984; Ferris, 1997; Zacharias, 2007). This result contradicts Zamels, (1985) as it says, students consider teachers feedback as ambiguous, and often misleads them in the wrong direction. Secondly, this study explored that receiving feedback weekly is more frequent than daily and monthly. The learners become more inspired when feedback is given immediately as immediate feedback has positive impact on their academic life. It would be more beneficial if students are given tasks more fre-quently which will provide more scopes for feedback in classroom. Providing frequent feedback encourages students to be actively involved in writing process and develop their writing skills. This study sheds light on an interesting fact that students often find the given feedback unclear, less specific, and less detailed.  Stu-dents explain their opinions such as “not clearly ex-plained” as teachers do not explain clearly the parti-cular aspect they need to deal with. This is in agree-ment with Sommers, (1982), who argues that feedback from teachers is not always comprehensive and also comments on a particular piece of writing are not pre-cise. It is teachers responsibility to understand stu-dents demands and give some time to explain in detail what their problems are so that they have clear con-cepts of their problems. Vygotskys ‘scaffolding advocates ‘assisted performance which is when some-one with more knowledge than learners help to pro-gress in learning. The ‘scaffolding continues until the learners reach their successfully (Harmer, 2007). This is also supported by Ziv, (1982) who agrees that stu-dents prefer to receive clear feedback from the instructors, and they need to get further advice or sug-gestions to fix the mistakes. The findings revealed that students prefer student-teacher conferencing most. Lastly, correcting errors helps students modify their written works which influences their academic results. Students appreciate teachers supervision that provides constructive and effective criticism on their written work. Feedback helps students overcome their writing challenges, which encourage them to develop a posi-tive attitude towards feedback. This result contradicts with the fact that students have negative attitude towards teachers feedback as found in Semkes, (1984) study which argues students may feel discour-aged and disappointed when they receive too much feedback marked with a red-colored pen. Truscott, (1996) also believe that teachers feedback is not helpful for the students to increase their writing ability as he claims learning is better when students enjoy it; whereas feedback causes opposite feelings to them. However, this study reveals students consider that feedback enables them to reread their compositions. A good number of researchers claim that students revise their papers after receiving feedback resulting in the improvement of their writing accuracy (Chandler, 2000; Ferris, 1997; Lalande, 1982). 

“Feedback on students probably has more effect on achievement than any other single factor” (Black & William, 1998; Harmer, 2007). This study concludes on students positive attitude towards receiving tea-chers feedback in EFL classrooms which asserts that students value teachers feedback because it does not only help them enhance their writing skills but also motivates them to write better. Students believe that feedback has multiple benefits as it does not only help error correction but also provides additional infor-mation. Students can overcome their writing challen-ges after receiving feedback from teachers. They con-sider feedback has more impact in improving their writing skills if it is received early and frequently in classroom and it significantly helps in their academic results. Students also presented their viewpoints about facing difficulties while receiving feedback as it is not always clear and detailed. Some students claim that teachers use difficult vocabularies and phrases which they cannot make sense of; so, they repeat their mis-takes even after receiving feedback. It is teachers res-ponsibility to understand the needs of the students and provide a detailed explanation so that students can understand their problems properly. Students value student-teacher conference meetings more than oral or written feedback as they find it more useful while sharing their problems personally. It is expected that the outcomes of this study may provide EFL writing teachers with pedagogical implications to help enrich EFL students writing skills. In the future a com-parative study may be carried out to understand the effectiveness of oral versus written feedback in enhan-cing students writing skills. 

The following recommendations are made for en-hancing the quality of feedback to improve Bangla-deshi tertiary level students writing skills:

1) Proving feedback at the end of a trimester/seme-ster needs to be avoided as early/continuous feed-back have positive impact on students academic results. 

2) Teachers need to encourage students to talk to them more frequently regarding their writing pro-blems so that immediate feedback can be deli-vered. 

3) Feedback needs to be clear, specific and detailed.

4) Teachers may make arrangements for frequent teacher-student conferencing for more personal interaction which may motivate students to dis-cuss their problems without hesitation.

5) Use of rubrics may be more effective for giving feedback. 

Authors are thankful to Notre Dame University Bangladesh for allowing their students to be the respondents of this study. They are also thankful to all those students who took time to fill in the question-naires and give their opinions. 

Authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.