THE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS TEACHER’S FEEDBACK ON THEIR ESSAY IN ONLINE WRITING CLASS

In the academic writing class, students get teachers‟ feedback on their writing
essays. Teachers need to provide feedback when the learners have produced some
written works. This study aims to see the way academic writing teacher provides
feedback and to know the students‟ attitude towards the feedback. The data was
gained through observation, interview with the teacher and some students, and
questionnaire on the students‟ attitude towards the feedback distributed to 33
students in the Academic Writing Class at a private university in Semarang. The
questionnaire is structured into four distinct sections: general teacher feedback,
content-specific feedback, language form feedback, and feedback on organization.
To begin with, the general teacher feedback section yielded an average rating of
3.4545, indicating a moderately positive response. This is on par with the
feedback on content-specific questions, which also received an average score of
3.4545, suggesting a consistent reception across these two areas. In contrast, the
language form section, which addresses aspects such as grammar, spelling,
punctuation, and capitalization, garnered a slightly lower average score of 3.3257.
This indicates that while the feedback was still somewhat positive, it was received
less favorably compared to the general and content-specific feedback. Finally,
feedback on organization, with an average score of 3.3593, fell between the
general feedback and language form ratings. This suggests that respondents found
the organizational feedback slightly more favorable than the language form
feedback but not as positively as the general and content-specific feedback.
Overall, the responses show a nuanced view of the different areas, with general
and content-specific feedback being rated more positively compared to language
form and organization. The results show that the teacher gave feedback to the
students by giving comments on Google Docs when giving feedback, the teacher
focused on specific things like thesis statements and topic sentences, style,
plannings, organization, contents, grammar, mechanics. Students get feedback on
their work based on how relevant, in-depth, and accurate it is. The teachers‟
feedback does not focus on the students‟ motivation and work ethos. Meanwhile,
the students perceive the teacher feedback positively. The implication of these
findings is that while the feedback on specific technical aspects of writing is well-
received, there is room for improvement in addressing students‟ motivational and
work-related attitudes. Teachers might consider incorporating feedback that also
encourages and motivates students, potentially leading to even more positive
perceptions and better overall outcomes in their academic writing.