Feedback on student writing in the Syrian EFL secondary class

Several studies have been done worldwide to examine issues related to providingfeedback on student writing in different second language classrooms (e.g. Hyland andHyland, 2006). Various types of feedback can be implemented, such as teacherfeedback (e.g. Hamid, 2007; Ferris and Hedgcock, 2005), peer/group feedback (e.g.Bartels, 2003; Saito and Fujita, 2004; Hyland and Hyland, 2006; Yang et al, 2006;Villamil and De Guerrero, 2006) and self-feedback (Makino, 1993; Ferris, 2002).However, it could be inappropriate or at least questionable to use the same type ofWritten Feedback (WF) in dissimilar pedagogic and contextual settings. For thisreason, mixed methods research (mixed research) was carried out to compare staff andstudents' perspectives, attitudes, experiences and understanding of issues related to WFin three English as a Foreign Language (EFL) secondary schools in Syria. In particular,this research set out to discover what type of feedback on student writing dominates inthe EFL Syrian secondary classroom, the reasons behind such dominance and howthese students and staff view implementing types of feedback other than that/thosedominant in that classroom.To reach this goal, six types of triangulation were utilised to enhance the validity andreliability of the research outcomes: data source, methodological, respondent, space,analysis and methodology triangulation. This research concludes that teacher feedback(TF) has precedence among other types of WF in the Syrian context and this can beattributed to four main factors that are related to: teachers, students, the currenteducational system and the social system prevailing at the time of the research.x