TARANNUM TASNIA -
RISALA AHMED (American International University - Bangladesh (AIUB))

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN RECORDED AUDIO FEEDBACK AND WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN A MULTI- DRAFT ESSAY WRITING TASK: A MIXED METHOD APPROACH : LANGUAGE TESTING AND ASSESSMENT

Recent years have seen a considerable surge in the use and popularity of technology- enhanced feedback, primarily due to the growing integration of technology in education. This trend has been especially pronounced with the widespread adoption of online education methods during the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper intends to compare between two modes of teacher feedback, written feedback on student assignments on Microsoft Teams and audio feedback on Teams using a chrome extension accompanied by written comments to evaluate their efficacy to enhance students’ writing skills in the context of tertiary level EFL writing classrooms in Bangladesh. Forty undergraduate EFL writing students received recorded audio feedback along with written feedback on Teams whereas another group of 40 students received only written feedback on Teams in a process- based essay writing task. An interview with 3 students from each group was also conducted to gather data on student perceptions about their preferences, benefits and challenges of using these two feedback modes that may provide potential insights to help teachers understand which feedback strategy can best facilitate student learning in the particular context of theirs. The results indicate that students achieve greater success in revising their essays when they receive both audio and written feedback. Among the various types of errors, students have been most successful in addressing structural errors, while they face more challenges in addressing feedback related to content. The survey as well as interview indicate that students prefer the combination of audio and written feedback over written feedback alone, as it offers a multi-dimensional approach, a personalized touch, and the advantage of being easily replay able for continuous learning.

Tasnia Tarannum is a Lecturer at the Department of English in American International University- Bangladesh. She obtained BA (Hons) in English and Masters in Applied Linguistics and ELT from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She has a teaching experience of more than eight years and has previously worked in two other renowned private universities of Bangladesh.

Risala Ahmed is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at American International University-Bangladesh. Prior to AIUB, she worked as a Teacher in an English Medium School in Dhaka. She has completed her Honors and Masters from the Department of English, University of Dhaka. Her research interests include ELT, Shakespeare studies and Post-colonial literature.