On July 21, 2016, the fifteenth Journal Club Session by the BRAC Institute of Languages (BIL) was held at the Writing Centre based on the article “The Written Corrective Feedback Debate: Next Steps for Classroom Teachers and Practitioners.” The speakers of the event were Md. Mahbubul Islam and Marwa Mohammad Masood.
This article by Dan Brown focuses mainly on the factors related to effective written feedback and also how to provide corrective feedback on students’ work. The article highlights the importance of a teacher and their students’ motivation to teach and learn respectively, and how their past experiences and beliefs affect language learning in a classroom. According to the author, direct and indirect feedbacks also play a significant role in language learning.
The speakers of the session also discussed the limitations of current research, according to the author, on written corrective feedback due to the wide ranging complexities of contextual factors for particular learners or groups of learners in a particular classroom setting. In this regard, the speakers also mentioned that ‘good’ feedback can only focus on the problems of individual writers as well as their reasons for writing. The article provided considerable solutions, such as promoting awareness and motivating student engagement, in order to avoid such problems.
The session was interactive and generated constructive discussion among the participants. All the attendees were keen to share their thoughts and ideas in the session. They discussed their own experiences with their students and how effective feedback can be given. Overall, the session was useful as both speakers gave a detailed explanation of the article and how we can help our students learn and perform better.