Providing Written Formative Feedback for the Diverse Classroom : A case study of a Swedish lower-secondary EFL classroom

Abstract: The study, designed as a case study, aimed to explore an EFL teacher’s process of producing individualised written formative feedback to further the English language development of the diverse student body of one eighth-grade class in southern Sweden. The research questions were approached from a teacher’s perspective. (1) What are the characteristics of written formative feedback on the written performance of individual students in a diverse ELT classroom? (2) How does the teacher reason when adapting formative written feedback to the needs of individual students? The Quadrant model, applying aspects of sociocultural theory, helped interpret the data collected from the think-aloud protocol, follow-up interview, and the written feedback provided to the students. Two main characteristics were identified for the teacher’s written feedback comment. First, the teacher aspired to provide feedback within each student’s engagement zone, which was also found to be a vital part of the teacher’s reasoning when adapting his feedback to students. Secondly, the written comment consisted mainly of motivating and explanatory comments to encourage further development, which also mirrored the teacher’s reasoning when adapting feedback to each student’s needs. The reasoning reflected the teacher’s aspiration of balancing the amount of support and challenge each student needed to support their development within their Zone of Proximal Development.