My research project is linked to pedagogical content knowledge, in particular to grammatical pedagogical content knowledge in teacher education (Myhill, Jones, & Watson, 2013). Pre-service primary school teachers (student teachers) are dependent on meaningful feedback because they might not only use the provided feedback for their own writing improvement but also for their future teaching and their own development of feedback practices (Borg, 2015; Holt-Reynolds, 1992). Thus, teacher educators play a special role in higher education. In this context, Doughty’s (1994) and Han’s (2001) concept of fine-tuned feedback seems to be of particular importance. Fine-tuned feedback is defined as a ‘process whereby the provider of corrective feedback tunes in to the true causal factors of an error and successfully brings the learner’s attention to the learning problem’ (Han, 2001, p. 584). There is still a relatively scarce amount of research on ‘fine-tuning’ in connection with meaningful metalinguistic ESL/EFL feedback on writing as a part of formative assessment (e.g., Kepner, 1991; Lee, 2007; Lee & Coniam, 2013; Lee, Mak, & Burns, 2015).
The aim of my research is to map, describe and analyse the role of meaningful grammar feedback, which challenges both the lecturers who have to provide it, and the student teachers who want to use it to improve their ESL/EFL writing skills. The data collection consists of 3 studies: (1) grammar feedback as an artefact: analysis of written corrective and oral conference feedback (WCF, OCF) provided to 18 student teachers (single-case study); (2) grammar feedback recipients’ perceptions: in-depth interviews with 10 student teachers reflecting on WCF and OCF in essay 1 and learner uptake in essay 2 (stimulated recall interviews); (3) grammar feedback providers’ perceptions: one pilot, twelve in-depth and four member check interviews. The main question of my research is as follows: What role does fine-tuned grammar feedback play in ESL/EFL student-teachers' writing education?
We advocate the need for further research, especially in the domains of written/oral combinations and feedback types, such as elicitations and metalinguistic feedback. Some teachers might not know about the various feedback forms available for “fine-tuning” their grammar feedback. It will be of particular interest to describe how feedback can effectively incite the students’ metalinguistic self-reflection.
