Critical Discourse Analysis of Student Responses to Teacher Feedback on Student Writing

Hee-Seung Kang
Sheridan College

Julie Dykema
University of Washington

Published in 2017

PDF

Abstract

Tis study explores student written responses to teacher feedback and analyzes these responses through the framework of critical discourse analysis
(CDA). Drawing on CDA, we examined the structural, interactional, and
interdiscursive features of 21 students’ paragraph-length comments on
formative teacher feedback on their first assignment draf in a frst-year
composition class and investigated relations between the text, interaction,
and context. Te structural analysis indicates that the students’ comments
demonstrate their emerging academic literacy skills. Our interactional
analysis shows that most students took on an active role as a good student
and a hardworking writer, but some students exerted their agency by taking
the opportunity to resist the authority of the teacher, while others rejected
it altogether. Our interdiscursive analysis illustrates that students used not
only language from the teacher’s comments, but also metalanguage of the
composition classroom to formulate their responses. Based on our fndings, we discuss implications for teaching practices and future avenues for
research on students’ responses to teacher feedback.