Translingual Digital Feedback in English as an Additional Language Writing

This study investigates how English as an Additional Language students in a non-English medium instruction university context seek, understand and utilize translingual digital feedback during academic writing. Framed by translingual practice, the study reports a semester-long case study of five undergraduates in China. Data comprised screen recordings of composing sessions (researching, outlining, drafting, revising), successive drafts and two rounds of semi-structured interviews. A thematic analysis combining deductive and inductive coding traced how students engaged with translingual digital feedback to construct their English as an Additional Language writing. Findings reveal a staged, recursive workflow: learners primarily leveraged Chinese feedback resources to scaffold conceptual understanding, surface key terms and structure outlines, then turned to more English feedback resources to verify terminology, align stance and genre moves, and refine lexical/grammatical expression. Students perceived this orchestration as efficient and confidence-building, yet flagged risks of ‘Chinglish’ and rhetorical mismatch. The study contributes to the construct of translingual digital feedback and demonstrates its pedagogical value for writer agency and iterative development in English as an Additional Language writing.

Duke Scholars

Author Yachao Sun DKU Faculty