Academic emotions in written corrective feedback situations

Abstract

Abstract Although written corrective feedback (WCF) is often believed to evoke negative emotions, empirical studies on L2 students affective reactions to this teaching and learning device are still lacking. Informed by research on academic emotions (Pekrun, 2006; Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2012), the paper reports on two case studies investigating Chinese university EFL students emotional reactions to teacher WCF. Self-report data collected from retrospective verbal reports and interviews constituted most of the data, supplemented by observation notes, student writing, and class documents. Qualitative data analysis revealed the richness and dynamicity of the focal students’ emotional reactions to WCF. While both students reported being emotionally undisturbed by WCF, they in fact experienced different discrete emotions with varying object foci, valence, and activation, and these emotions fluctuated in the revision process. The findings question the presumed connection between WCF and negative emotions, suggesting the inadequacy of the positive-negative distinction of emotions and the need for a more nuanced understanding of emotional reactions to feedback.