EFL TEACHERS' AWARENESS, PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES OF GIVING WRITTEN CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS’ PARAGRAPH WRITING: IN CASE OF ARBAMINCH TOWN SOME SELECTED GOVRNMENT PREPARATORY SCHOOLS OF GRADE 11 IN FOCUS

Abstract

The aim of the study was assessing EFL teachers’ awareness, practices and challenges of giving written corrective feedback to students’ paragraph writing grade 11 in focus. The specific objectives of the study were to assess teachers' awareness of giving written corrective feedback to students’ paragraph writing. A descriptive research design was adopted in this study. The participants of the study were 30 of English language teachers selected with convenance sampling techniques and 40 students sampled written paragraph assignments were randomly selected from preparatory schools of grade 11 for the purpose of document analysis. From these participants, data were collected using students’ written assignment documents analysis, classroom observation, teachers’ questionnaire and Semi-structured interview. The validity and reliability of the instruments were established through pilot study. Qualitative data was thematically analyzed. The research findings indicated that some preparatory English language teachers have lack of awareness about giving written corrective feedback to students’ paragraph writing. However, considerable number of English language teachers are well aware of giving written corrective feedback to students’ paragraph writing. The findings of the study also revealed that the majority English language teachers have lack of practicing written corrective feedback to students’ pre writing, drafting, revising, editing and publishing stages of students’ written assignment. In relation to the challenges teachers encounter in giving written corrective feedback to students’ written assignments, the study result shows that large class size, teachers’ work load, students’ lack of grammar knowledge, teachers’ proficiency level and mechanics are major challenges that hinder the giving of written corrective feedback to students’ written assignments. Finally, based on the major findings of the study, possible recommendations were forwarded so as to develop the awareness of teachers giving written corrective feedback to students’ paragraph writing and to enhance the capacity of preparatory English language teachers with capacity building trainings giving written corrective feedback to students’ paragraph writing as well as to overcome the problems of large class size, students’ grammar knowledge, sentence structure and mechanics