CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 516EFL/ESL Teaching and LearningStudent Assessment and FeedbackSecond Language Acquisition and Learning

The preferences of ESL students for error correction in college-level writing classes

Leki, Ilona·1991·Foreign Language Annals
DOI 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1991.tb00464.x
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

ABSTRACT The work of researchers like Zamel (24) and Krashen (12) on the effectiveness of teacher feedback on second language writing does not support a focus on surface error to help students improve their writing. However, students of English as a Second Language (ESL) may come to U.S. institutions of higher education with a notion different from that of their teachers here about what kind of teacher responses will help them improve their writing. This paper presents the results of a survey of 100 ESL students in freshman composition classes, asking the students to analyze their sense of what kinds of paper marking techniques help them the most to improve their writing, which kinds of corrections they even read, which corrections they feel they retain best, and what reactions they have to positive and negative comments on both the form and the content of their writing. The results of this preliminary study suggest that these students equate good writing in English with error‐free writing and, therefore, that they want and expect their composition teachers to correct all errors in their written work. This paper argues that a given teacher and class of students must agree about what constitutes improvement in writing and suggests that students' expectations may need to be modified if students are to profit from teacher feedback on their compositions.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1991.tb00464.x

Cites

20 of 20 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Affect plays a role in shaping students' attitudes to error correction.

    “Affect plays a role in shaping students' attitudes to error correction (Leki, 1991).”

    From Error Correction in the L2 Writing Classroom: What Do Students Think? (2005) · cites this paper as Leki, 1991

  • The findings about students' preferences are consistent with existing research findings about ESL students' preferences.

    “The above findings are consistent with existing research findings about ESL students' preferences (Leki, 1991).”

    From Error Correction in the L2 Writing Classroom: What Do Students Think? (2005) · cites this paper as Leki, 1991

  • Research has found that correcting errors does not necessarily help students to avoid making mistakes.

    “Whether teachers treat errors selectively or comprehensively, research has found that correcting errors does not necessarily help students to avoid making mistakes (Leki, 1991; Takala, 1984)”

    From Error Correction in the L2 Writing Classroom: What Do Students Think? (2005) · cites this paper as Leki, 1991

  • Teacher-generated feedback has consistently been shown to positively influence students' revision practices and subsequent writing performance.

    “Teacher-generated feedback, a primary form of feedback, has consistently been shown to positively influence students' revision practices and subsequent writing performance (Leki, 1991).”

    From Enhancing EFL Writing Revision Practices: The Impact of AI- and Teacher-Generated Feedback and Their Sequences (2025) · cites this paper as Leki, 1991

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Leki, I.
Affiliations
University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US)
Corresponding author
Leki, Ilona
Venue
Foreign Language Annals
Publisher
Wiley
Published
1991-05
Volume
24
Issue
3
Pages
203-218
ISSN
  • 0015-718X (ISSN-L)
  • 1944-9720
DOI
10.1111/j.1944-9720.1991.tb00464.x
OpenAlex
W1986325910
Cited by
516
References
20
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 24 · 2014: 36 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 32
FWCI
14.90
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor, 6454 d)
Locations
Foreign Language Annals (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
  • Social Sciences › Education › Student Assessment and Feedback
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
Keywords
ESL learners, error correction, teacher feedback, second language writing, student preferences, surface error, writing improvement, first-year composition, student expectations

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review