Written Comments on Undergraduate Theses Written in Spanish as a First Language and English as a Foreign Language

Abstract

This study examines written comments of nonnative-speaking teachers of English and native-speaking teachers of Spanish on undergraduate theses of nonnative-speaking students of English and native-speaking students of Spanish. The aims of the study were to analyze the characteristics of the feedback provided applying the categories of corrective and genreoriented types of comments, and to study whether these types of comments vary through the thesis drafts. This is a descriptive qualitative study with quantitative aspects and an exploratory scope. The material was collected from the dialogic cycle of receiving and providing feedback during the university students’ thesis writing process. Out of this process we collected 1241 written comments that were analyzed applying the categories mentioned before. The results showed that genre-oriented comments were more abundant in theses written in Spanish than in those written in English. However, Spanish teachers also provided more corrective comments than English teachers did.

Keywords

• feedback
• genre-oriented comments
• written comments