As instructors, we want our students to receive clear and actionable feedback to improve their work. At the same time, we manage time constraints, particularly as we want students to receive feedback promptly. This requires careful thought to the purpose of our feedback and the methods we use to provide it.
Reflection on Grading:
The questions to the right encourage you to consider the factors that shape your current approach to grading and actual practices. Consider whether you are spending your grading time in the ways that best support your teaching goals, and your students’ learning?
Supporting You and Your Students with Rubrics and Checklists
Rubrics are a tool that specify student expectations on an assignment (often divided into categories according to the assignment requirements). A rubric may be detailed (outlining performance at each level for each category), or simpler.
The Teaching and Learning Commons Grading Strategies site provides guidance on the process of creating and using rubrics. If creating rubrics is new for you, consider taking a few moments to explore this resource before continuing on this page.
Using Feedback to Support Multilingual Writers
Three common sources of writing challenges for multilingual writers in postsecondary courses are:
- Challenges related to ongoing language acquisition;
- Challenges arising from differences in varieties of English; and
- Challenges related to genre and discourse-level issues.
Multilingual writers have often completed a language proficiency exam as a condition of their admission to their programs, demonstrating a high level of proficiency in English. Their language development, particularly in academic domains, still continues to develop throughout their educational journey. Academic language proficiency develops more slowly than general communicative language proficiency, typically requiring 5-7 years of ongoing exposure to complex academic vocabulary and discourse (Cummins, 2000). With practice and exposure to academic language, continued growth towards stronger professional proficiency occurs. It is important to understand that this journey typically unfolds over a period of years, rather than weeks.
Multilingual writers from countries where outer circle varieties of English are used may have years of exposure to English language educational environments. When entering an environment where they are first exposed to an unfamiliar variety, differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, and usage can create challenges for writers as they navigate the differences between academic and professional norms.
Often, when the flow of thought in a multilingual writer’s text seems challenging to the reader, the major issue impeding understanding is occurring at the discourse level, rather than the grammatical level. Higher level issues, such as the expected organization of a text, may be more important to address than smaller errors in grammar or vocabulary. When reading a text, it can be helpful to consider whether the writer would benefit more from addressing higher-level organizational issues in order to more effectively communicate with the reader
Strategies for Responding to Multilingual Writers
Identifying multilingual writing challenges accurately is the first step to developing a supportive instructional and feedback strategy. Consider the following strategies for creating an environment that facilitate the growth of multilingual writers, while demonstrating respect for linguistic and cultural identities.
| Responding to challenges arising from ongoing language acquisition | Strategies for working with students who are still developing academic and professional language proficiency include focusing primarily on errors that impede your understanding of the writer’s meaning (Matsuda & Cox, 2011), rather than providing direct feedback on all minor errors. Another strategy is helping students to identify patterns of high-frequency errors in their work (Cogie et al., 1999), which allows students to focus on 2-3 specific areas for growth. Rather than correcting all observed errors, selectively identifying areas for improvement can be more effective (Ferris, 2008). Allowing students to focus on a defined and meaningful goal, rather than a vague direction to “improve grammar” is more likely to result in concrete improvement. |
| Responding to challenges arising from varieties of English | When you experience challenges responding to student writing that might be rooted in differences in English varieties, responding through a framework of difference rather than correctness may be helpful. Consider contextualizing feedback through a cultural lens, with statements such as “This word choice might be considered by Canadian readers as unusual in a professional context. An alternative may be…” |
| Responding to discourse and genre-based writing challenges | Developing students’ understanding of genre expectations is often best done through scaffolded and structured instruction, as these activities benefit all students, not only multilingual writers. consider partnering with a Teaching & Learning Commons or Learning Centre colleague for assistance in using these strategies. |
A 3-C Framework for Responding to Multilingual Writers’ Work
When providing feedback on student writing, consider the following framework to guide your process: clear, constructive, and contextual. Explore each part of the framework in the tabs below.
- Clear: As much as possible, with consideration of categories explored in this chapter, clearly identify the specific writing challenge you are observing. If you are providing feedback related to grammar, aim to identify 2-3 specific focus areas for the student (for example, selection of verb tenses, eliminating sentence fragments or run-on sentences, reviewing article use). While you may not be a language expert, labelling areas for improvement specifically as much as possible aids students in creating measurable goals for growth.
- Constructive: Aim to identify a specific step that students might take in response to your feedback. For example, a feedback statement such as “work on grammar” is unlikely to provide a student with an actionable next step. A statement such as “make an appointment with a Learning Centre tutor to practice organizing your ideas within paragraphs” identifies a focus area, as well as a supportive campus resource.
- Contextual: Aim to contextualize feedback within Canadian academic culture and your specific disciplinary culture. This acknowledges that “correctness” in language choice is often situated within the norms of a particular context, and that these norms are not always universally shared. Using phrases such as “in scientific writing”, or “in Canadian business communication” signal that you acknowledge students as learners in their new academic and disciplinary communities, and allows students to situate themselves within the multiple cultural and academic communities that are a part of their broader experience.
Attribution Statement:
This section is extracted from Page, C. (2021). Supporting Multilingual Writers. In C. Page (Ed.) Inclusive teaching. Kwantlen Polytechnic University. https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/inclusivepedagogies/ Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.