Beyond the Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) Debate: Tunisian EFL University Lecturers’ Views of their WCF Practices

Abstract

This paper is located in the research area of writing assessment and feedback literacy at the Tunisian EFL tertiary level which is still an under-investigated research area (Maazoun 2020, Athimni (2020), and Enneifer (2021). This research study attempts to address this gap by investigating WCF effectiveness in the foreign language classroom which has been considered a debatable topic of research. Most studies have either supported or debunked the implementation of WCF to enhance grammatical accuracy. However, very few studies have looked beyond this debate. Therefore, this study is an attempt to go beyond this traditional debate to investigate the WCF issue through revisiting Bachman’s (1990) model of communicative language competence which consists of textual and pragmatic competencies. The rationale behind opting for Bachman’s (1990) framework is informed by the research objectives which focus on unveiling Tunisian EFL tertiary teachers’ beliefs about their students’ communicative competencies in relation to writing literacy. The analysis of the closed-ended questionnaire and the semi-structured interview has led to in-depth findings of WCF beliefs of twenty EFL writing teachers who are currently working at the Tunisian tertiary level. Their lack of focus on on pragmatic competence led to considerable theoretical and practical insights.