Digital corrective feedback in Swedish as a second language, basic level

Assessment is a central part of the teaching praxis and a formative type is regarded valuable for student learning. Still, there is a gap in knowledge in how written assignments by Swedish as a second language students is assessed formatively. The gap in knowledge is even bigger when the corrective feedback is given in digital platforms. The purpose with this study was therefore to investigate the teacher’s feedback on written assignments in a learning management system called Lunis. The texts were written by four adult students at SVA Ground (Swedish language aquision for adults). The feedback was analyzed quantitatively according to feedback types, amount of feedback, and on which feedback type the student revised correctly or incorrectly. The study also included a qualitative approach. Two of the four students were interviewed with TAP (think aloud protocol) and two with retrospective interviews to find how they think, act and resonate about the feedback. In addition, the teacher was interviewed about her view on feedback in general and on specific case investigated in the present study. The result showed that students and the teacher regard feedback as a learning opportunity. The teacher responds quickly to the written assignments and gives feedback on half of all observed errors. The students respond to 95 % of the given feedback and revise 84 % of them correctly. Explicit feedback type dominates when its directed to grammar and metalinguistic dominate when the teacher marks the text content. The majority of all feedback is explicit and this form also provides the highest correct student revision. The metalinguistic type gives least correct revisions but is anyhow understood by the students. It may be concluded from the results of the present study that the feedback is effective, the student appreciate feedback on the grammar and is able to reasoning metalinguistic about the feedback even when they revise it incorrect