Investigation of university English preparatory schoolstudents' feedback process to the development of writing skill

The purpose of this study is to investigate the feedback process of university preparatory school students in writing classes, to reveal students' preferences about types of feedback to the writing skill with respect to their gender, department and English language proficiency levels. It also aims to identify feedback types given to the students studying their appropriateness of level of language achievement. To accomplish these objectives, the quantitative and qualitive research methods were applied independently. 166 students who study at a public university English Language Preparatory School in Ankara, in the 2018-2019 academic year, were surveyed using the instrument of "Types of Feedback Preference Survey", developed by the researcher. To examine the feedback process, feedbacks to the given 126 student texts written by preparatory school students at four different English language proficiency levels (elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper-intermediate levels) were gathered transfering feedbacks to the computer. To determine the appropriateness of the writing program and writing achievement goals "Feedback and Writing Skill Achievement Appropriateness Form" developed by the researcher was used. In the quantitative part of the research, data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). Chi-Square Tests were applied to determine whether there was a meaningful relationship among feedback preferences of the students in the survey in terms of gender, department and level of language proficiency. For the analysis and interpretation of qualitive data, the content analysis method was applied. At the end of this study, it was found that there is significant difference related to students' feedback preference in terms of gender, department and level of language proficiency. It was revealed that students prefer direct, indirect, descriptive and interrogative feedback types to their texts. Interrogative feedback types which were not met in the literature before revealed in this study. Researchers and educators might benefit from the results of this study while giving feedback to their students in the writing classes. While doing this it is suggested that they should give different feedback types and not only focusing errors but also positive sides of the writing. Key words: language teaching, English writing skill, feedback, types of feedback, feedback preferences