An Activity Theory Approach to Korean EFL Students’ Dilemma in Teacher Written Feedback

Abstract

Guided by Engeström’s (1999, 2001) activity theory, this study focused on three contrasting students and examined their participation in teacher feedback over a complete course. This study was to analyze how various factors may have influenced the way EFL students respond to teacher feedback, why students experience contradictions in teacher feedback, and how such contradictions can lead to dilemmas during the feedback process. The study revealed that student response to teacher feedback was an intricate matter, intertwined with the agency of the students' writerly selves. It was also influenced by several teaching factors, including the teacher’s practices, his/her native speakerhood, as well as the instructional context in which the feedback was given. The activity theory analysis showed that students’ different motives for participating in teacher feedback afford disparate representations of the teacher feedback activity. Therefore, while the three students may have appeared to be engaged in the same action, they may in fact have been transforming the given activity for their psychological/social needs and thus have been engaging in different activities. Student response to feedback often took unpredictable and unexpected directions filled with contradictions. These contradictions were a source of dilemma for the students. But, for the most part, they were a source of change or learning.