Iranian TOEFL/IELTS Teacher's Perception and Practice of Feedback in L2 Writing Classrooms

This study is an attempt to investigate the Iranian TOEFL/IELTS teachers’ written feedback practices and their perception of written feedback in writing classes. The examination of the questionnaires given to 30 TOEFL/IELTS writing teachers and the analysis of their written feedbacks on 300 students’ essays indicate that although the majority of the teachers believe that they should provide feedback on the language (i.e., spelling, grammar, vocabulary, capitalization, and punctuation), organization (i.e., cohesion, coherence, and unity), and content of students’ essays, most of their written feedbacks are concerned with the language of their students’ essays. In fact, a discrepancy was found between the teachers’ perception and their practice in the provision of feedback. In addition, although the majority of the teachers believed that they should give indirect feedback on their students’ writings, most of their written feedbacks were direct. This lack of harmony between the teachers’ perception and their practice in providing written feedback calls for more attention.