İkinci dilde yazma dersi öğretmenlerinin orta-üst düzey öğrenci kompozisyonlarında bulunan hatalara karşı tutumları ve geri bildirim sağlama tercihleri: özel bir Türk üniversitesindeki durum

L2 WRITING TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF MISTAKES IN STUDENT WRITING AND THEIR PREFERENCES REGARDING FEEDBACK: THE CASE OF A TURKISH PRIVATE UNIVERSITY Dokuzoğlu, Selcen M.A. Program of English Language Teaching Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Hüsnü Enginarlar September 2010, 161 pages This study aimed to investigate L2 writing instructors’ perceptions of seriousness of different mistake types in upper-intermediate level students’ essays. It also set out to examine the teachers’ preferences related with feedback provision. Furthermore, whether there were discrepancies between the teachers’ claims about the issues mentioned above and their actual performance while marking the essays was looked into. The study was conducted at the Preparatory School of a private university in Turkey. Ten essays written by upper intermediate level students were marked by ten writing teachers who showed the most disturbing mistakes in these essays. They also gave feedback for these papers and half of the teachers were requested to think aloud while evaluating the essays. In addition, a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were used by the v questionnaire were analyzed through SPSS 15.0. This data gathering instrument was implemented on ten writing teachers working at the institution. In analyzing the data, descriptive statistics were used. The averages showing the seriousness of different mistake types and the frequency at which the teachers use different feedback techniques were revealed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five teachers. The results of the interviews were analyzed through content analysis. The results of the study revealed that 80 % of the teachers viewed content related and organizational problems more disturbing than those related with accuracy. However, for 20 % of the teachers mistakes concerning the accuracy of the sentences were more serious. As for the feedback preferences of the teachers, 90 % of them used error codes while marking the essays and all the teachers preferred to write comments. While 60 % of the teachers were in favour of marking students’ mistakes comprehensively, the rest (40 %) believed selective marking was preferable. Moreover, it was found out that the teachers’ claims were compatible with their actual performances although some contradictions were observed in their performance.M.S. - Master of Scienc