In Kazakh schools, writing, as an important communicative activity, has been an essential part of English teaching in all grades. Students’ access to the teacher’s feedback and utilizing it successfully compose a principal feature of the learning of writing. In writing classes, where the teacher written feedback is not a typical process, upgrading sufficient writing proficiency may be out of question. Both of them, teachers and students have admitted the decisive value of the teacher written feedback and correction codes, where the teaching of writing is process-oriented, not product-oriented. It aims to assist them during the step by step learning-to-write process by facilitating their revisions (Harmer, 2004; Peterson, 2010). In such cases, having aimed to assist students to improve their writing skills, teachers strive to use adequate methods to respond efficiently. Until now, the research results are different, indecisive, even contrasting, and in L2 writing, (Leki, 1990). Even though the research results lead to some misleading questions about the usefulness and effectiveness of teacher written feedback ( Cohen and Robbins, 1976; Truscott, 1996), there are the others highlighting the positive impact of correction on learners’ proficiency. Therefore, nobody can reject the fact that students want feedback and teachers are ready to provide it. The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of the teacher written feedback and coded correction system in general, what types of feedback are efficient for struggling and more able students and how the students benefit from it achieving writing proficiency in EFL classes. The current study with 21 students in the second term of intellectual school proves that they prefer teacher written feedback and correction codes more as the instructor shows the error directly and indirectly using a certain code.
Statement of the problem
At the end of the first term after having summative exam’s results, there was conducted Mock exam for IGCSE, in order to check the 10 grades students’ preparation for it. Grade 10 students writing skills showed, lower level than the teachers expected. Facing poor results in Mock exams for IGCSE especially in writing, teachers of English department have been researching hard, to provide strategies how to improve teaching and learning.
What could they learn from such researches? How should they do their research for improvement? Who knows the answer? The classroom teachers have been confusing in a puzzle about what they really have to do. David Brian, an international teacher, who does co-teaching in a senior grades, recently conducted workshop on this issue. He explained the strategies of teacher written feedback briefly. After that workshop teachers gain better understanding how to improve teaching and learning, that would lead to students’ advancement.
The curriculum guides states that the writing skill level which Kazakh upper secondary school students should achieve in A syllabus English should reach is B1+ or B2. These levels imply that students, for example, can write clear and detailed texts about several topics; can write more formal social messages. Unfortunately, only 3 students out of 21 were able to obtain this level.