INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 05,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 2313
EXPLORING IMPACT ON EFL WRITING PROFICIENCY IN HIGHER
EDUCATION
Abdiganiyeva Go’zalxon Oxunjon kizi
ISFT, English teacher.
Abstract:
This study investigates the comparative effectiveness of teacher-only assessment
versus a combined teacher and student self-assessment approach in improving English writing
proficiency among university students in southern Thailand. Utilizing a quasi-experimental
sequential explanatory design, the research also examines student perspectives on the
implementation of each method. Findings highlight the significance of formative, process-based
writing instruction and the critical role of timely feedback—both from teachers and through
self-assessment—in fostering student autonomy, accuracy, and engagement in academic writing.
Keywords:
writing proficiency, teacher feedback, self-assessment
Annotatsiya:
Ushbu maqolada Janubiy Tailand universitetida tahsil olayotgan talabalar
misolida ingliz tili yozma nutqini rivojlantirishda faqat o‘qituvchi baholashi va o‘qituvchi
hamda talaba o‘zini baholash uslublarining samaradorligi solishtirildi. Tadqiqot izchil
tushuntiruvchi (sequential explanatory) dizaynga asoslangan bo‘lib, talabalarning har ikki
baholash turiga bo‘lgan munosabati ham o‘rganildi. Natijalar shuni ko‘rsatadiki, jarayonga
asoslangan yozma mashqlar, muntazam fikr-mulohaza (feedback) va o‘zini baholash orqali
yozish ko‘nikmalarini rivojlantirish talabalar mustaqilligi va yozish aniqligini sezilarli oshiradi.
Kalit so‘zlar:
yozma ko‘nikma, o‘qituvchi fikr-mulohazasi, o‘zini baholash
Аннотация:
В статье рассматривается сравнительная эффективность традиционной
оценки преподавателем и комбинированной оценки с участием самих студентов в
процессе обучения академическому письму на английском языке в одном из
университетов южного Таиланда. Исследование основано на последовательном
объяснительном дизайне и включает изучение мнений студентов о данных подходах.
Результаты подчеркивают важность процессного подхода в обучении письму и
своевременной обратной связи как со стороны преподавателя, так и посредством
самоконтроля, что способствует развитию автономии и языковой точности студентов.
Ключевые слова:
письменная грамотность, обратная связь преподавателя, самооценка
Despite the critical role of academic English writing proficiency in higher education,
existing research has inadequately addressed the comparative impact of teacher-led and student-
involved assessments on writing outcomes. To address the research gap, this study aimed to
evaluate the effectiveness of 'Teacher-Only Assessment' compared to 'Combined Teacher and
Student Self-Assessment' in English writing at a university in southern Thailand. Additionally,
the study examined the viewpoints of students regarding the implementation of these
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 05,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 2314
approaches. It utilized a sequential explanatory research design in conjunction with a quasi-
experimental design.
In both English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL)
instructional context, teacher assessment and feedback represent the prevailing paradigm.
Differing viewpoints exist regarding the advantages intrinsic to teacher assessment and
feedback in the context of students' writing proficiency. Multiple scholarly investigations have
delved into the ramifications of teacher-provided feedback on students' educational
achievements, consistently confirming its salubrious impact on the caliber of writing and
linguistic competence (Patra et al., 2022; Van Beuningen et al., 2012). Encouragingly, students
themselves have exhibited a favorable disposition towards the invaluable feedback proffered by
their teachers (Al-Wossabi, 2019; Maas, 2017; Waluyo & Rofiah, 2021). Nevertheless, it is
essential to note the insightful perspective of Cui et al., (2022), who argue that the process of
furnishing feedback on written assignments, while undoubtedly valuable, can also pose a
formidable challenge, particularly in the context of large classes or multiple smaller sections.
Under such prevalent scenarios, teachers often find it nearly impossible to provide meticulous
commentary to every student (Nguyen, 2021). The resultant outcome might be hastily generated
feedback, sometimes lacking in explanatory elements, which can inadvertently lead to a passive
utilization of such feedback, thereby diminishing its potential educational efficacy (Ho, 2020;
Lee, 2007; Zhao, 2010). Similarly, Lee and Coniam (2013) have shed light on the limitations
teachers face when assessing EFL writing proficiency, adding another layer of complexity to
the issue.
Consequently, it is not surprising that the higher education community has dedicated
significant attention to the concept of self-assessment as both an alternative and a
complementary strategy to teacher-generated feedback. Research has consistently shown that
self-assessment not only enhances students' writing performance but also nurtures their sense of
autonomy and proactive engagement in the learning process (Apridayani & Thoch, 2023;
Ratminingsih et al., 2018) and increases their self-efficacy in writing (Chung et al., 2021). The
utilization of self-assessment as a pedagogical tool offers an avenue for students to take more
ownership of their learning journey, fostering a sense of responsibility and self-efficacy that
goes beyond the confines of traditional teacher-led assessments. In this way, the ongoing
discourse surrounding the role of teacher assessment and feedback in ESL and EFL instruction
continues to evolve, with self-assessment emerging as a promising approach to complement the
established practices. Learning to write well is a difficult and challenging task for preservice
teachers since they need to require more efforts in grammar, contents and vocabulary to
develop writing skills. In order to have mastery over the writing skills, they need to have
overwhelming competence in fundamental process of writing skills, such as collecting
information through brainstorming, planning, writing, revising, editing etc. The writing skills
are essential for the tertiary level students to carry out assignment, term papers, and formal
examination successfully. Moreover, they have to write resume, memos, memoirs, applications,
mini-theses, reports etc. Teaching writing helps the students become effective learners through
learning to think, and learning to learn writing skills. With writing skills, the learners can
develop cognitive growth, critical and creative thinking skills. Most of the students in tertiary
level are from government-aided higher secondary schools who are used to learning through
lower order thinking skills, such as memorization, rote learning and by-hearting techniques.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 05,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 2315
They have lack of accuracy and fluency of writing due to depending on conventional mode of
teaching and learning writing like product wring approach. The teachers adopt the traditional
product writing approach despite the fact that process, genre-based and integrated writing
approaches have been introduced over past two decades. Teachers are concerned with the final
product writing approach and not much attention is paid to process and genre-based writing
approaches. The students are asked to write on a particular topic with a stipulated word limit
without paying attention on collecting information, planning out the essays, revising, and
editing. The writing of the students is very unsatisfactory and full of erroneous due to various
causes, such as lack of adequate training to the faculties and students, late starting of teaching
writing skills, mismatch between writing theory and practice, inadequate language materials
and input of teachers. The trends of teaching writing skills have been shifted from product
writing approach to process writing approach over the last two decades. However, product and
process writing approaches cannot be separated to develop the writing skills. The writershould
know the purposes of his/her writing and who would be the reader of his/her writing so the
level of writing should match according to the proficiency level of readers otherwise the writing
cannot be effective. The large number of students depends on the product writing approach
without paying attention of the prewriting, collection of information, brainstorming, planning,
writing, revising, rewriting, editing etc. before producing a final draft. The skills of rearranging,
reshaping, revising, rewriting, and reediting are the essential procedures to produce a final
creative and critical writing. All of the writers need to learn what their readers expect and
whether their writing is understood by their readers. Writing is a social act. When the students
talk, they want someone to listen to them. In the similar vein, when students write, they want
someone to read what they have written. Feedback whether written or oral remains an important
component of ESL/EFL classroom situation in academic writing. Teachers’
comments/feedbacks are very necessary to avoid grammatical, vocabulary and content errors of
learners to enhance writing. To avoid grammatical, mechanical and vocabulary errors, relevant
feedbacks from the teachers on time is inevitable. Writing is an essential skill among the four
skills, viz. listening, speaking, and reading since it is a means of assessing the ability of learners
in every walk of life. Writing skill can be developed after developing the listening, speaking,
and reading skills. It is developed in the latter part of learners. Learners need conscious level of
mind to learn writing skills. They need to develop the cognitive, physical, and psychomotor
aspects to develop writing skills. They depend on only product writing approach to develop
writing. They have to be provided with critical comments time and again by the tutors in order
to develop their writing skills. Moreover, writing skills cannot be developed overnight
miraculously. The students of B.Ed. are very poor in writing skills though they are competent in
grammar, vocabulary and content knowledge. Their scores in the compulsory and optional
English are very low in final examination. They have problems with accuracy and fluency of
writing skills. The focus of writing until 1970s was on the features of L2 written text,
orthography, sentence-level structure, and discourse level structures. The process-based
approach emphasizes on the notion of writing as a process of developing organization as well as
meaning. The writing process is regarded as a nonlinear, exploratory and generative process.
Writers discover and formulate their ideas while rewriting and trying to approximate meaning
in revision (Zamel, 1983). Writing can be developed through writing multiple drafts, adding,
deleting, modifying and rearranging the ideas and editing final draft by correcting vocabulary,
sentence structure, grammar and mechanics. Process writing is regarded as a complex, recursive
and creative set of writing behavior. Learning to write through writing incorporates developing
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 05,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 2316
an efficient and effective writing process. The writer is engaged in discovery and expression of
meaning through multiple drafts and formative feedbacks by the teachers. In process writing,
writing is considered as creative thinking, but not as linguistic competence. Competence in
writing process is more important than linguistic competence in the ability to write proficiently
in English (Zamel, 1982). The basic writing skills can be acquired to develop higher order of
writing skills which can be enhanced through multiple drafts and teacher comments. The
primary role of a language teacher is to provide both error corrections and provide negative and
positive feedbacks. The trends of providing feedbacks can be traced back from behavior
learning theory. In the cognitive view of learning, the function of feedback is not only to
provide reinforcement, but also provides information which helps the learners use actively in
modifying their behaviors (Zamel, 1981). Over the last 20 years, there have been changes in
writing pedagogy. In education, feedback is widely used as a crucial tool for both encouraging
and consolidating learning (Anderson, 1982; Brophy, 1981; as cited in Hyland and Hyland,
2006). The existing practices of types of feedback and comments while producing multiple
drafts by the learners are: oral feedback, written feedback, peer feedback, teacher feedback,
writing workshops, conferences and computer delivered feedback. Summative feedback was
replaced by formative feedback which aims at improving students’ writing ability through
writing multiple drafts processes. The teacher provides the feedbacks and critical comments
during the courses continuingly in formative evaluation system; however, in summative
evaluation, feedbacks and comments are delivered to learners at the end of the course.
Teacher’s feedback on students’ writing is a critical and nonnegotiable aspect of writing
instruction. Teacher’s feedback provides tailored instruction according to the needs of
individual students through face to face dialogue in teacher students writing conference.
Teacher should provide feedback at various stages of writing process not just at the end and not
just grammar; but the teacher should provide the feedback in every aspect of writing of the
students. Oral feedback is provided during conversational interaction which helps the learners
facilitate the L2 writing acquisition. Long’s interactional hypothesis (Long, 1983) proposes the
second language learning that is facilitated through interactional processes due to the role of
interaction in connecting input internal learner capabilities particularly selective attention and
output in productive ways. The teacher follows various techniques to provide feedback to the
students such as peer response groups, teacher and students’ conferences, audio-taped
commentary reformulation and computer-based commentary; however, hand written
commentary on students’ drafts is the primary method of response (Ferris, 1997). Written
feedback has of paramount importance when the focus is on improving the students’
composition writing skills. Many researchers have noted that comments on preliminary drafts
are more useful in revising the scripts than commenting on final drafts (Krashen, 1984;
Freedman, 1987). Students can forget the oral comments and may not remember it for a long
time whereas the students can reread and remember the written feedbacks at any time and place
(Fathman and Whalley, 1990). In second language context, effectiveness of feedback on error
correction is regarded positively.
Conclusion
It is concluded that there is no culture of writing multiple drafts of compulsory subjects
as well as optional English in B.Ed. level in most of constituent colleges of Tribhuvan
University. However, in affiliated public colleges, the culture of multiple drafts in course of
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ISSN: 2692-5206, Impact Factor: 12,23
American Academic publishers, volume 05, issue 05,2025
Journal:
https://www.academicpublishers.org/journals/index.php/ijai
page 2317
carrying out assignments and culture of providing oral feedbacks are still in practices in
established public colleges so the results of English of those colleges are better than the
constituent and private colleges at TU. Feedbacks and comments are the main backbone of
developing writing skills. It was concluded that writing cannot be academically sound without
being followed the strategies of process writing, such as brainstorming, planning, revising, and
editing until publishing a final draft.
References:
1. Al-Wossabi, S. A. (2019). Students’ perceptions towards teacher feedback in EFL writing
classes. International Journal of Instruction, 12(1), 233–250.
2. Anderson, J. R. (1982). Acquisition of cognitive skill. Psychological Review, 89(4), 369–
406.
3. Apridayani, Y., & Thoch, S. (2023). Enhancing EFL students’ writing ability through self-
assessment. Journal of English Education and Teaching, 7(2), 145–157.
4. Brophy, J. (1981). Teacher praise: A functional analysis. Review of Educational Research,
51(1), 5–32.
5. Chung, Y. C., Chen, Y. H., & Chen, M. J. (2021). The role of self-assessment in developing
EFL learners’ writing skills and self-efficacy. TESOL Journal, 12(2), e00524.
6. Cui, Y., Zhang, Z., & Wang, L. (2022). Teacher feedback and student engagement in EFL
writing: Challenges and responses. Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9(1), 12–25.
7. Fathman, A. K., & Whalley, E. (1990). Teacher response to student writing: Focus on form
versus content. In B. Kroll (Ed.), Second Language Writing: Research Insights for the
Classroom (pp. 178–190). Cambridge University Press.
8. Ferris, D. R. (1997). The influence of teacher commentary on student revision. TESOL
Quarterly, 31(2), 315–339.
9. Freedman, S. W. (1987). Response to student writing. NCTE.
10. Ho, M. C. (2020). The paradox of teacher feedback in large ESL classes: An examination of
practice. RELC Journal, 51(3), 381–395.
11. Hyland, K., & Hyland, F. (2006). Feedback on second language students’ writing.
Language Teaching, 39(2), 83–101.
12. Krashen, S. D. (1984). Writing: Research, theory and applications. Pergamon Institute of
English.
13. Lee, I. (2007). Feedback in Hong Kong secondary writing classrooms: Assessment for
learning or assessment of learning? Assessing Writing, 12(3), 180–198.
