Exploring L2 postgraduate students’ engagement with supervisor feedback in academic writing

Abstract

While studies on student engagement with teacher feedback have proliferated, these investigations have mainly focused on undergraduate students in non-academic writing contexts with limited participants. Consequently, little is known about how second language (L2) postgraduate students engaged with their supervisors’ feedback in academic writing. To fill this important gap, we employed a mixed-methods approach to examine how L2 postgraduates engaged with supervisor feedback affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively in academic writing. In our study, we collected data from multiple sources including questionnaires, students’ first and revised writing samples, supervisors’ feedback, semi-structured interviews, and stimulated recalls. The analyses of quantitative and qualitative data showed that the participants generally engaged with their supervisors’ feedback and related activities actively and profoundly in affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions. We conclude our study with a discussion on the important pedagogical implications these findings can offer.