On Learner-Centeredness: Teachers’ Practices and Learners’ Preferences of Teacher and Peer Feedback

Abstract

Learner-centeredness is an important aspect of the current EFL teaching-learning process, specifically when teaching the writing skill. The provided feedback to improve such a skill is also of much importance and concern. The present study attempts to investigate teachers’practices and learners’ preferences of teacher and peer feedback in EFL writing classes. All along, three research questions areraised: (1) What are the Algerian middle school EFL teachers’ practices regarding teacher and peer feedback when teaching writing? (2) What are the Algerian middle school pupils’ preferences regarding teacher and peer feedback? And (3) Are the Algerian middle school EFL teachers teacher-centred or learnercentred in teaching writing? In order to achieve the setaims and answer these questions, data werecollected through two questionnaires. The first one was delivered to 40 middle school teachers from different Algerian eastern states mainlyto determine their practices in the English writing class. As for the second questionnaire, it was administered to 200 middle school pupils dispatched on two middle schools in Mila. The learners were mainly targeted to highlight their preferences of teacher and peer feedback. A descriptive method was used and upon analysis the research findings revealed that although teachers claimed to incorporate a learner-centred approach, teacher-driven feedback is still practised more than peer feedback in the English writing classes. It is also preferred more by pupils and considered more helpful. However, when they were not forced to choose, pupils expressed their interest in both feedback types. Therefore, a mixed approach based on teacher-peer feedback is strongly recommended as an effective practice that would contributeto the improvement of EFL learners’ writing skill and respond to their preferences at the same time.Other recommendations are further discussed.