EFL College Students’ Experiences and Attitudes Towards Teacher-Student Writing Conferences

A substantial body of research has demonstrated the important role of providing feedback in students’ writing development. Among the various feedback methods, the teacher-student writing conference has often been rated by learners as the most beneficial to writing development, but research on EFL students’ perceptions of writing conferences is scant. Aiming to investigate students’ experiences and attitudes towards writing conferences, this study collected data through questionnaires and individual interviews with 34 EFL students from two college English writing classes. Findings suggested that the students held high expectations and gave high ratings on the helpfulness and success of the conferences that they experienced. Affectively, they generally reacted positively towards writing conferences although meeting individually with the teacher appeared to induce anxiety in some students. While the students’ preferences seemed to differ for the investigated conferencing options including paired/group conferencing and setting of the agenda, this study identified instructor’s tutoring approach as a potential influencing factor in students’ conferencing experiences and attitudes. Several implications are suggested, including rotating between several possibilities to cater for students’ different learning styles and learning needs.