Abstract:
Teacher feedback is a common way of giving feedback to students. However, there are gaps found particularly whether English proficiency level influences feedback effectiveness and whether feedback gives benefits students on all writing aspects. Therefore, this study examined three-fold foci whether low proficiency EFL students who were taught using the combination of peer and self-directed feedback (PSF) had better writing achievement than students who were taught using teacher feedback, whether these students benefited on content and organization aspects, and whether they benefited on vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics aspects. Employing a quasi-experimental research, this study involved two groups of 29 students given a writing test. The students were the sixth semester students who took Writing IV course at STKIP PGRI Banjarmasin. The data were analyzed using One-way ANOVA and Mann-Whitney test. The results showed that low proficiency EFL students who were taught using the combination of PSF had better writing achievement than low proficiency EFL students who were taught using teacher feedback (p-value .018). However, these students did not benefit on content and organization aspects (p-value 0.243). They benefited more on vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics aspects (p-value 0.009). Therefore, teachers are suggested to provide their own feedback on content and organization and that the combination of PSF is used to assist them in teaching the low proficiency EFL students to reduce the burden. Further investigation involving moderate and high proficiency levels is suggested.
