Understanding Novice Transborder Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices of Written Corrective Feedback in Mainland China

Abstract

As a widely adopted pedagogical approach to second language (L2) writing, written corrective feedback (WCF) has been a major research interest over the past two decades. However, most research has focused on investigating the effectiveness of WCF or determining which types of WCF are more effective. Little research attention has been paid to the perspectives of an important stakeholder—L2 teachers, who are responsible for delivering WCF on a daily basis in their natural professional contexts. Even less research has focused on novice transborder teachers who face unique challenges resulting not only from their limited teaching experience but also from the transition from one pedagogical context to another. This knowledge gap limits our comprehension of how novice transborder teachers approach WCF in real-world contexts. It also results in our insufficient understanding of whether or to what extent teacher education offered in English as a second language settings prepares international students for their professional success in English as a foreign language settings. Drawing on the language teacher cognition framework (S. Borg, 2006/2015), this qualitative cross-sectional study explored five novice transborder teachers’ beliefs and practices of WCF at secondary school levels in mainland China. Based on data from teachers’ WCF samples, unscheduled voice memos, semi-structured interviews, and relevant documents, this study found a strong connection between the participants’ beliefs and practices. Furthermore, it suggested the considerable influence of teachers’ prior L2 writing learning experiences and contextual factors on how they developed and applied their beliefs of WCF to practice. It also indicates that there is a need for enhanced L2 writing pedagogy training in language teacher education. The study offers practical advice for English language teaching practitioners to improve the quality of L2 writing instruction and provides valuable insights for teacher educators to further develop teacher education.