The effect of feedback and instruction on writing quality

Rebekha Abbuhl is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at California State University Long Beach.

This dissertation presents the results of two studies that examined the relationship between teacher feedback and the quality of writing produced by advanced second language (L2) learners studying law in the U.S. Two groups of students were compared: (1) a feedback group that received semester-long individualized feedback on both the form (e.g., grammar and lexical choice)and content (e.g., legal argumentation) of their writing, and (2) a second group that received only one set of written comments on the quality of their legal argumentation. Results indicated that both groups made significant improvements to the quality of their memoranda. However, the extra feedback and instruction the feedback group received allowed them to make greater gains in organization and argumentation, as well as in the linguistic accuracy and complexity of their writing. In addition, the extra feedback and instruction appeared to give the feedback group a greater awareness of their audience and the genre-specific conventions of the U.S. legal discourse community within which they were writing.