Establishing and Maintaining Objective Criteria in Writing and Speaking Feedback Strategies in EFL

Abstract

Writing and speaking are termed productive or active skills due to the fact that learners need to produce language when doing these. As EFL teaching is increasingly becoming more and more oriented toward helping learners develop and improve their communicative competence, it is not surprising that speaking and writing skills are becoming ever-more important. Though it goes without saying that speaking and writing undoubtedly go hand in hand with the receptive skills, reading and listening, EFL learners, and instructors, are, nevertheless, focusing their attention on improving speaking and writing skills. This is why it is so significant that clear and objective criteria is established and provided in the EFL teaching and learning environment, as this criteria will benefit not only the learners, but the teachers as well. As assessment is an integral part of the teaching and learning process, it goes without saying that learners are bound to find themselves receiving some kind of feedback at some point in their acquisition of these skills. However, the issue that arises is the fact that this assessment tends to be seen by many learners as subjective rather than objective, which is not the case with assessing listening and reading comprehension, for example, where it is easier to pinpoint the mistakes. This paper takes a closer look at what this includes, and how it can be done, without disrupting either the teachers’ or the learners’ autonomy, and hence make the whole process that much smoother.