Talking Feedback: Fostering Student Feedback Literacy Through a Dialogic Approach

Feedback is essential for learning, but traditional one-way feedback approaches often limit student engagement in the feedback process, thus reducing their opportunities to develop feedback literacy or the capacities needed to understand and use feedback productively. This study adopts a dialogic approach to cultivate student feedback literacy by embedding feedback dialogues into an academic writing course for Thai EFL students. Interview findings indicate that students’ active and ongoing participation in feedback dialogues with peers and the teacher can enhance their understanding of the feedback process, improve evaluative judgment skills, and foster proactive engagement with feedback. The study provides classroom-based evidence highlighting the importance of clarifying feedback through dialogic interactions and the role of emotional support in feedback literacy development. Pedagogical strategies are provided for a shift toward more collaborative and learner-centered feedback practices in language education.