Written supervisory feedback strategies on bachelor’s theses: Chinese EFL supervisors’ beliefs and practices

Abstract

This study investigated the beliefs and practices of Chinese EFL supervisors regarding their written supervisory feedback strategies for undergraduate English majors’ bachelor’s thesis drafts at a Chinese public university. Qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews with six EFL supervisors and the text analysis results of the written feedback strategies used in six sets of first, second and third bachelors’ thesis drafts showed matches between the supervisors’ stated and actual written feedback strategies both in general and in different draft stages. In general, the supervisors believed in using an indirect strategy, and they provided written feedback indirectly in practice. For different draft stages, the supervisors believed in prioritizing indirect strategy in initial drafts and direct strategy in later drafts. In practice, they provided written feedback more indirectly for the first and second drafts, but they did so more directly for the third draft. These findings contrast with the literature and point towards some pedagogical recommendations.