ENGLISH MAJORS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS THE USE OF PROWRITINGAID AND TEACHERS’ WRITTEN FEEDBACK: A CASE STUDY AT TRA VINH UNIVERSITY, VIETNAM

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to explore English majors’ perceptions towards the implementation of ProWritingAid and
teachers’ written feedback. The participants were 50 sophomore English majors at Tra Vinh University, Vietnam. This study employs a mixedmethods research approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The instruments included the questionnaire and the interview to discover students’ attitudes towards the benefits and drawbacks of these two forms of feedback. The findings showed that ProWritingAid can help correct grammatical errors, provide useful feedback on punctuation and spelling, vocabulary choices,
and assist students in learning from their writing. Meanwhile, teachers’ feedback gives detailed comments on the content, strategies, and motivation to enhance writing assignments. Moreover, teachers’ feedback is clear, understandable, and reliable. Each type of feedback has its own benefits and drawbacks, so most sophomore English majors expect to combine these two forms of feedback to improve the teaching and learning of writing skills. Based on the findings above, several suggestions are proposed for both teachers
and students to support lifelong learning among students.