International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 2018, Volume 30, Number 3, 522-533

http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/ ISSN 1812-9129

Higher Education Supervision Practices on Student Thesis Writing: Language

Function and Focus of Written Feedback
Yenus Nurie
Bahir Dar University

Supervisors’ feedback can be taken as the most powerful pedagogical tool in thesis writing.
However, relatively little is known about the type of information supervisors focus on and the
language functions supervisors use to communicate with their students. Data collected from eight
supervisors’ written feedback to students’ theses at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia were coded,
tabled, and converted into percentages for analysis. The results of this study showed a wide range of
supervisors’ practices concerning the functions and types of written feedback. While the supervisors
favored feedback on the genre knowledge the most and directive clarification language functions
was most frequently used to communicate with the students, little or no attention was given for the
expressive approval of language functions. Overall, the results of this study suggest that supervisors’
written feedback can be taken together in regard to the process of effective communication. Finally,
implications for better supervision practices and further research are presented that could shed light
on the strengths of using other research tools.

Writing a thesis and/or a dissertation is a daunting research. The most decisive factor for better or worse of
experience for all novice researchers. Particularly, this is research is the advisor-advisee relationship (Sambrook,
more complex when English as a foreign language is Stewart, & Roberts, 2008; Tahir, Ghani, Atek, &
used as a means of communication for research purposes Manaf, 2012), and this relationship can be better
partly because EFL (English as a Foreign Language) fostered through effective communication between the
students’ capabilities in the accuracy and fluency of the supervisor and advisee.
language are limited, as a result of which they lack the
linguistic competence to adequately address each aspect Supervisor Written Feedback and Why It Matters
of the research. Despite the fact that research courses that
serve as a vehicle to build students’ research skills are There is a general agreement in the literature around
offered in both undergraduate and graduate schools, the the conceptualization of feedback as a process of
student researchers have little or no capacity and communication and dialogue in specific social contexts
understanding of basic research components and skills (Pokorny & Pickford, 2010). Accordingly, one of the
necessary to undertake a study. approaches used to support student researchers, and
In most universities, students usually do research hence improve supervision practices within higher
under the supervision of professors. Apart from education institutions, is through supervisors’ written
nurturing a strong working relationship with the corrective feedback. Engebretson et al. (2008) stated that
student, the overall passion and professional the quality and appropriateness of research supervision is
commitment of advisors to educational research should critical, and that supervisors’ constructive and detailed
not be understated. Heath (2002) stated that the role of feedback on written work has been identified as a key
the supervisor is to guide the research student characteristic of good research supervision.
throughout his or her study, to provide the student the Feedback is embedded in supervisory relationships
time, expertise, and support to foster the candidate’s as it can propagate a power relationship in which one is
research skills and attitude in order to ensure the the master and the other the learner (Kumar & Stracke,
production of a research of acceptable standard. 2007), and, “In a supervisory environment, feedback on
As student researchers are expected to take no written drafts is a form of communication, as it is
course other than their research course in the final through written feedback that the supervisor
academic year of their study, the usual face to face communicates and provides advanced academic
interactions between the students and their professors training, particularly in writing, to the supervisee”(p.
can be minimized. Upon the acquaintance of their 462).Apart from bonding a close rapport with their
advisees, supervisors may start their supervision by students, supervisors’ written feedback can also help
discussing the area under investigation and the overall foster students’ linguistic capability. Overall, to achieve
expectations of the research. In such kind of quality teaching and supervising, effective and quality
collaborative work, therefore, it is important not to feedback should be provided (Rowe & Wood, 2008).
underestimate the relentless efforts of supervisors in The student-supervisor relationship is an important
stimulating and enriching student researchers with determinant of quality of supervision (Ali, Watson, &
relevant knowledge and expertise pertaining to Dhingra, 2016), and an effective working relationship
Nurie Student Thesis Writing 523

between the supervisor and the student is crucial These studies reveal numerous concerns for both
(Murphy, Bain, & Conard, 2007; Tahir et al., 2012). The postgraduate students and supervisors.
impetus for the present study stems from the notion that According to Lindemann (2001), effective
the types of language functions used to provide feedback feedback is feedback that is focused, clear, applicable,
determine the quality of student-supervisor and encouraging. Moreover, providing feedback to
communication, thereby increasing or impinging on their students gives students the opportunity to reflect on
relationship. This relationship requires a long-term their work and to modify it in order to become more
commitment from both sides so as to transform a effective (Pearson& Kayrooz, 2004).If feedback is
student’s research skill. One of the commitments that carefully targeted, especially with less efficient
offer excellent potential for increasing the supervisor- learners, it can enable students to acquire and utilize
student relationship can be the type of language function appropriate strategies to process the objectives of
supervisors use to communicate with their students. learning(Hattie & Timperley, 2007). This is because as
Supervisors need to envisage students’ learners’ level of proficiency increases, they become
psychometric understanding and determine how their more capable of correcting their own mistakes
students will react to written feedback. This is because, (Amrhein & Nassaji, 2010; Ferris, 2006; Ghandi &
as Layder (1997) posits, the student’s ability or Maghsoudi, 2014; Jodaie & Farrokhi, 2012; Lee, 2003).
willingness to do the feedback might depend on the Effective feedback is a clear set of guidance that is
emotional impact of feedback. Their motives to do so or helpful in enhancing students’ writing. Students were most
not may result from positive responses such as deep satisfied with their supervisors when they receive both
consideration of the feedback and reasoned rejection of regular and constructive meaningful feedback on research
it, or negative responses such as distrust of the feedback and progress towards the degree (Zhao, Golde, &
provider (Price, Handley, Millar& O’Donovan, 2010). McCormick, 2007). Hyland (2009) posits that the most
Based on the type of language function provided to helpful feedback is that which helps them understand the
theses, students may show different emotional feelings expectations of their disciplinary community and “conveys
towards supervision practices. For example, if implicit messages” about the values and beliefs of the
supervision is full of an overly negative tone of discourse community, the nature of disciplinary knowledge,
feedback, students may lose control of their emotions or and student identities in the community (p. 132).
may get fraught with difficulty (Price et al, 2010). On Regarding the language function of various types
the contrary, if supervisors consider the psychometric of written feedback, research has indicated that the way
expectations of their students, feedback helps students in which comments are worded by supervisors can have
overcome their emotions, and such feedback impacts a potential of affecting students both negatively and
greatly on future improvements. Feedback is deemed to positively. According to Weaver (2006), self-esteem is
be ineffective if students do not act on it (Gibbs & affected by receiving negative or unexpected feedback,
Simpson, 2004). Therefore, understanding the especially for students with low self-confidence who
psychometric expectations of students and the tend to take all feedback as a judgment of ability. This
complexity of the feedback processes is particularly makes the student feel beaten, and he or she may think
important for effective supervision. of leaving the study. Despite the fact that feedback
constitutes a major form of instruction for higher degree
Research Evidence on Supervisor Written Feedback research students, the general focus of advisors has
been reported written feedback on the micro-level
A large body of research (Pearson & Brew, 2002; (Bitchener, Basturkmen & East, 2010) and the struggle
Kamler& Thomson, 2008; Whisker, 2005, as cited in to articulate implicit knowledge (Paré, 2011).
Bitchener, Basturkmen, East, & Meyer, 2011) indicates
that the topic of research supervision has attracted Theoretical Framework
considerable interest in the literature to date. Recent
research has indicated that effective and high quality Realizing the theoretical framework’s underlying
feedback is a key element of quality teaching in higher concepts is important for educators as it will help them
education (Hattie & Timperly, 2007; Sutton, 2009; manage the feasibility of concepts and translate the
&Weaver, 2006). On the other hand, Armstrong (2004) essence of the theory into effective instructional
reported the high figures of failures of postgraduate outcomes accordingly. This study is grounded in
degrees in the social sciences in the UK and North Searle’s (1969) prominent theory of speech acts and
America. Further, this study indicated that a high Vygotsky’s (1978) socio-cultural theory of learning.
proportion of those who complete their research The first theoretical framework that is related to the
degrees take longer time than expected, and students present study is the fundamental concept of the Speech
often express dissatisfaction with the research process. Act Theory by Searle (1969). Searle (1969) classified
Nurie Student Thesis Writing 524

speech into three major categories: locutionary, Vygotysky (1978) proposed that while the
illocutionary, and perlocutionary. individual actively learns, he/she needs to be assisted
It is important to note that the “act” in speech act by the other, which he termed the setting as the “zone
theory includes not only the speech that someone makes of proximal development."The term “zone of proximal
but also the writing of a particular string of words one development” is one of the most widely known
uses in communication. While locutionary involves the concepts that have been used as a reference in language
actual words of the message, the hearer’s reaction to the learning research. (ZPD) is the area of exploration for
speaker’s message is termed perlocution. The concept which the student is cognitively prepared but requires
of an illocutionary act, which states the speaker’s help and social interaction to fully develop. He stated
purpose or intent, is the cornerstone of the speech act that “the zone of proximal development permits us to
theory. This study focuses on illocutionary acts because delineate the child’s immediate future and his dynamic
they are commonly used to reject proposals and to developmental state, allowing not only for what has
make requests indicating that they have direct relevance already been achieved developmentally, but also for
to the area under investigation. The central premise of what is in the course of maturing in the jointly-
speech act theory is that the role of every utterance to a accomplished task” (p. 79).
particular speech-act type is part of what is Vygotysky explains that a social interaction
communicated and plays a necessary role in between a more able person and a less competent
comprehension (Sperber & Wilson, 1995). person plays a fundamental role in the development of
Out of a total of five illocutionary acts (assertives, cognition. He further elaborates that a teacher or more
directives, commissives, declarations and expressives ) experienced peer is able to provide the learner with
proposed by Searle (1969), assertive, commissives and "scaffolding" to support the student’s evolving
declaratives have been excluded from the analysis understanding or development of complex skills.
because in the face of reality, these three speech acts Collaborative learning, discourse modeling, and
rarely exist in supervisor-student written scaffolding are strategies for supporting the intellectual
communication. Therefore, for this study, directives knowledge and skills of learners and facilitating
(instruct somebody to do something) and expressives intentional learning.
(express feelings and attitudes) were used to classify According to Vygotysky (1978), the most
and analyze supervisors’ written feedback to student important feature of the ZPD is that, as with novices
theses. One of the most common speech acts that are and experts in any field, learners are not yet fully
usually evident in the communications between student alienated. He illustrated how the process unfolds in that
and supervisor is requesting clarification on the meaning for children is fully tied to the contexts in
student’s arguments. Supervisors often request for which words are used. He further provided
clarification and express their attitudes and emotions experimental evidence for how words have different
towards the proposition. meanings for children and how children appropriate
The role of feedback in teaching and learning is adult meanings as a consequence of collaborative
documented in educational literature. (Price et al, activity with others in the ZPD.
2010), and the role of feedback in facilitating student
learning has been perceived on many theoretical and Rationale for the Study
pedagogical grounds. Morris and Adamson (2010)
stated that constructivist theorists conceived language In light of the empirical data about students’ poor
learning as the active building of knowledge by the writing proficiency and the preeminent value of
learner, indicating that the learner needs to actively research, this study was presumably considered the best
engage in the learning process with information and alternative with the potential to inform educators and
feedback from teacher, peer, book, parent, self, and supervisors to improve thesis writing. Hence, the results
experience (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). of this study could help to conceptualize, plan, and
In his classical concept of socio-cultural theory of implement integrated supervision, or it is vital to
learning, Vygotysky (1978) explains the preeminent consider the possible consequences of not
effect of social interaction to facilitate learning. He implementing integrated supervision on the writing
conceived the interface between learning and achievement of students.
development through interaction, scaffolding, and Research indicates potential problems with how
modeling. Vygotysky rejected the notion of development feedback is communicated in higher education
as a necessary precondition for instruction and learning, (Bitchener et al, 2011). These include feedback that
and he stressed the importance of social interaction when may lack specific advice on how to improve (Higgins,
he argued that the dialectic unity of learning and Hartely, & Skelton, 2001) or feedback that may not be
development inherently proceeds through specific stages communicated clearly enough for students to be able to
whether instruction is made available or not. interpret (Carless, 2006; Chanock, 2000). Taken
Nurie Student Thesis Writing 525

together, the results indicate that an awareness of the written feedback. It may also be used to provide insight
“psychology of giving and receiving feedback is vitally into understanding the type and frequency of specific
important to student learning” (Carless, 2006). language functions used by the supervisors when they
Therefore, this study rests on the belief that provide written feedback on student theses.
understanding a great deal about the current trends of Feedback can be taken as the most powerful
written feedback provided by supervisors can help for pedagogical tool provided that it is effective
designing effective and appropriate mechanisms to communication. There is currently limited research on the
strengthen the communication between the student communication between supervisors and student researchers
researchers and supervisors. The present study through written feedback as most of the previous research
examined supervisors’ written feedback on MA thesis on written feedback has focused on teachers’ written
writing based on the two primary roles of speech acts feedback to respond to their students’ writing in the
that are usually manifested in supervisor-student classroom rather than to student thesis writing (Diab, 2005;
communication through writing—directives and Katayama, 2007; Riazi & Riasti, 2007; Wang, 2010).
expressives—and analyzed the type of specific written Despite the fact that there is a general agreement
feedback (content generic or linguistic) employed by on the importance for supervisors’ written feedback to
supervisors at Bahir Dar University. the development of student writing, what aspects of
written feedback (content, generic or linguistic) are
Statement of the Problem being provided by university professors for their
students’ thesis writing remained in question, especially
Reports from university instructors, experts, and in the Ethiopian higher education context. To achieve
the larger educational community suggest that too many the desired goal of this study, the following research
university-level students have limited ability in writing questions were formulated:
academic texts. Further, the Ethiopian students often
complain of being dismissed from the university 1. What type of language functions are most
because of their incompetence in English. The students frequently used in supervisors’ written feedback on
can express their subject-matter knowledge in L1 but students’ theses?
not in English (Jha, 2014). Students’ thesis writing 2. What types of the supervisors’ written feedback on
cannot improve if students are not communicating with student thesis were most frequent?
their supervisors effectively. Consequentially, one of 3. Is there a difference in the type of feedback
the most relevant measures to ensure high quality provided by supervisors from TEFL and Media and
education pertaining to research can be to substantially Communication?
increase the communications between supervisors and
student researchers through written feedback. Method
The main objective of higher education in Ethiopia
is to promote and enhance research focusing on Participants
knowledge and technology transfer consistent with the
country's priority needs. The conflicting pressures from Participants were drawn from the two discipline areas,
research reports and documented problems on the one namely TEFL and Media and Communications. Twenty
hand and increasing demands for quality research to supervisors who were assigned to advise 15 TEFL and 5
substantially prepare knowledgeable and skilled Media and Communications MA summer students at Bahir
manpower on the other hand underscore the dire need Dar University were asked to submit their feedback to these
to support students with their writing (Lavelle & students available in an electronic track feedback system. Of
Bushrow, 2007).In light of these concepts and the the 20 participants sought for the study, 5 supervisors from
empirical evidence reviewed, therefore, the present TEFL and 3 supervisors from Media and Communications
study was designed to respond to this need. either gave electronic feedback or volunteered to take part in
the study. All the theses belonged to students who were
Significance of the Study currently third year graduate students. The final drafts of the
students’ theses were purposefully selected on the
This study emanates from the belief that assumption that adequate feedback could be collected from
understanding a great deal about what constitutes their thesis as they were supposed to complete their studies
effective feedback based on speech acts analysis of by the end of the academic year.
communications between supervisors and students is
helpful to boost the communicative functions of written The Study Setting
feedback. It may also be helpful for supervisors to
revisit their supervisory practices and generate new This study was conducted on supervisor-written
designs that require adaptation to a different means of feedback in response to the Master of TEFL and Media
Nurie Student Thesis Writing 526

and Communications students’ thesis writing at Bahir Results

Dar University, Ethiopia. The thesis work was in a
compulsory course offered to graduate students as a The existing results obtained from the samples of
partial fulfillment of the requirement for the MA degree supervisors’ written feedback could be condensed into
in TEFL and Media and Communications. The three stranded themes. The first section presents the
students’ thesis writing, which lasts for a year, is frequency and percentages of the two primary speech
supported by advisors who are assigned to supervise the functions (directive and expressive functions and their sub-
overall research project or writing of a thesis proposed categories) observed in the supervisors’ written feedback
by the student researchers. Supervision, which includes to their student thesis writing. The second stranded
responding to the first draft, and revision are carried out presents the thematic analysis of the samples pertaining to
through the year until the final submission of the paper three types of feedback. The third section presents the
to their respective department. comparison trends of instructors’ written feedback in the
two disciplines, TEFL and Media and Communication.
Data Collection
Results for Supervisors’ Written Feedback Function
Data was collected from supervisors’ written on students’ theses
feedback on their students’ theses to provide detailed
information on the communicative functions of various The raw scores and percentage of the categories and
types of feedback provided by the supervisors. sub categories of the two primary language functions
Specifically, it was collected from the in-text and the were calculated, and the results are presented as
overall feedback on the complete draft of an MA thesis follows. As a whole, directive function strongly
in TEFL and Media and Communications. Evidence of endorsed by the supervisors’ feedback seemed to be the
feedback from samples of students’ theses was favored language function (72.28%). Regarding the
analyzed using language function analysis, and sub-categories of directives, the results of the samples
feedback types were categorized and quantified. seemed to indicate that the supervisors valued directive
clarification function the most (44.56 %,) followed by
Development of a Model for Feedback Analysis directive instruction (27.72%). The third and the fourth
speech functions communicated by the supervisors
The data obtained from supervisors’ written through their written feedback were expressive
feedback was collected, coded, and analyzed pertaining disapproval (25.26%) and expressive approval (2.46%).
to the two primary speech act categories selected for It is notable that unlike directive comments, the
this study: Directives (ordering the hearer to do expressive function of the written feedback collected
something) and Expressives (expressing the speaker’s from the students’ theses was low. In a nutshell, it was
attitudes and feelings). The two categories were further evident that the supervisors’ use of the directive function
classified into four sub-categories. While directives was predominant: especially, directive clarification
were classified as instruction and clarification, received almost half of the total supervisors’ written
expressives were further divided into approval and feedback collected for this study. On the contrary, the
disapproval (Leng, 2014). These functions of speech supervisors showed little amount of expressive functions.
were utilized as they are the basic components of Particularly, guidance through expressive approval was
supervisor-advisee communication and have received rare (2.46%) in their communications with their students
considerable agreement among researchers who through written feedback.
examined the role of speech acts in supervision and
written texts (Kohandani, Farzaneh, & Kazemi, Results for Supervisors’ Written Feedback Focus on
2014;Kumar & Stracke, 2007;Leng, 2013) . This study Student Thesis Writing
was guided by open, axial, and selective coding
strategies (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). As Table 3 depicts, written feedback on genre
The focus of supervisors’ written feedback was knowledge (58.95 %) was emphasized by supervisors
examined in relation to three major areas: content from the two departments more frequently than
knowledge (its accuracy, completeness, and relevance), feedback on content knowledge (28.07 %) and
genre knowledge (the functions of different parts of a linguistic accuracy and appropriateness (12.98 %).On
thesis), and linguistic accuracy and appropriateness the whole, supervisors from both disciplines favored
(Bitchener et al., 2010). The data obtained from the feedback on genre knowledge than feedback on content
samples of written feedback was then organized in tables. knowledge and linguistic accuracy and appropriateness.
The samples collected from the supervisors’ written The samples’ evidence of the supervisors’ written
feedback were number coded, and the written feedback feedback to students also showed that supervisors from
frequency was converted into percentages for analysis. TEFL and Media and Communications shared almost
Nurie Student Thesis Writing 527

Table 1
Supervisors’ Feedback Categories based on the two Speeches Act Functions
Main Function Subcategory Examples
Directive Instruction Elaborate your point in detail here.
Clarification What does this mean? It is not clear
Expressive Approval I like the organization of the literature.
Disapproval I don’t see any connection with your title!

Table 2
Descriptive Statistics for Supervisors’ Feedback Function on Students’ Theses
TEFL Media and Communications Total
Function Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
Directive-instruction 51 27.72 28 27.72 79 27.72
Directive-clarification 82 44.57 45 44.55 127 44.56
Expressive-approval 2 1.09 5 4.95 7 2.46
Expressive-disapproval 49 26.63 23 22.77 72 25.26
Total 184 100 101 100 285 100

Table 3
Descriptive Statistics for Supervisors’ Focus on Student Thesis
TEFL Media and Communications Total
Feedback Type Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent
Content knowledge 51 27.72 29 28.71 80 28.07
Genre knowledge 111 60.33 57 56.44 168 58.95
Linguistic accuracy and 22 11.96 15 14.85 37 12.98
appropriateness
Total 184 100 101 100 285 100

similar concerns regarding feedback on content, instructions that asked the students to revise the language
27.72% and 28.71% respectively. and to identify the correct components of the thesis:

Discussion  “State clearly about development [of]

communication.”
Supervisors’ Written Feedback Function on Student  “Please paraphrase, mind your language, and
Thesis Writing include this in the participants’ section.”

Based on the data obtained from the supervisors’ The directive clarification comments collected
written comments, it was evident that almost all of the from the supervisors’ written feedback asked students
supervisors communicated with their students largely to clarify the theoretical framework used and the design
through the directive clarification function. of the study employed in their respective theses. They
Clarification feedback is feedback that seeks students to include the following:
make their points clearer. This type of feedback can
serve as a general guideline for students since it shows  “What is (are) the theoretical framework (s)?”
them both what and how to revise their thesis. The  “How do you measure suitability? More
particular feature of this feedback is that questions that precisely, was it a purposive sampling”
ask students for further clarification are posed and
general information about the ambiguous points is also These samples of written feedback collected from
highlighted so as to give the writer a sort of direction. student theses showed that the supervisors’ strong
The directive written feedback observed in the commitment to providing directive clarification and the
students’ theses included comments in either statement supervisors’ constructive and detailed feedback on
or question form. The following are some of the directive written work have been identified as key characteristics
Nurie Student Thesis Writing 528

of good research supervision (Engebretson et al., 2008). From the outset, it was hypothesized that the
The supervisors seemed to recognize that the use of supervisors should employ little of this type of feedback
more directive clarification functions of feedback could as such comments give little comfort for their students
help them provide detailed and important information and hence can be demoralizing and lead to negative
as the work could be directly referenced to this function emotions (Caffarella & Barnett, 2000; Weaver, 2006).
of written feedback. Regarding the frequency of the sub-categories of
The result of this study, therefore, supports the expressives, the result of this study indicated that the
findings of previous research that reveal that feedback supervisors exhibited higher expressive disapproval
offers a sense of direction and guidance to students in comments than expected (28.14%).
order to improve on subsequent pieces of work (Gibbs The expressive comments collected from the
& Simpson, 2004; Glover &Brown, 2006; Hyland & supervisors’ written feedback that supervisors strongly
Hyland, 2006; Nicol, 2010). The frequent use of disapproved of their students’ written text include: “I
directive feedback reported in this study may have don’t see any connection with your title with this! It has
implications for students in establishing effective major limitations almost in all the parts. This is not a
communication patterns and thereby improving their conventional way of citing from an internet source.”
thesis writing. In other words, the written The supervisors’ attitude towards criticism and
communications observed in this way are helpful for negative feedback obtained from the supervisors’
students’ thesis writing as directive-clarification written feedback, therefore, can be taken as the essence
feedback provided specific directions to students on of better learning and may have positive implications
how to revise their essays (Kumar & Stracke, 2007). In for the students. This result substantiated the notion that
the same vein, Hyland and Hyland (2006) claimed that students appreciate and benefit from constructive
in order for improvement to take place, feedback should criticism as it increased their self confidence in their
be loaded with information. writing (Button, 2002; Goldstein, 2004).However, the
As for specific speech act functions, one of the result of this study may have implications for
directive speech functions that was observed frequently supervisors to revisit their feedback mechanisms as
in the students’ theses was directive instruction feedback negative feedback is potentially more powerful than
(27.72 %). See Table 2. The types of instructions positive feedback (Brunit, Huguet & Monteil, 2000).
prevalent in the comments include the following: Further, if supervision is full of an overly negative tone
of feedback, students may lose control of their emotions
 “Don’t forget to edit your work.” or may get overwhelmed with difficulties (Price et al,
 “Bring it before sampling.” 2010). Feedback is deemed to be ineffective if students
 “Include this in the participants’ section.” do not act on it (Gibbs & Simpson, 2004).
 “Reorganize this into a coherent body of text.” Therefore, it is important to note that supervisors
need to help students to manage negative emotions
caused by critical feedback by including positive and
The value of directive instruction feedback on
encouraging feedback along with critical comments
different aspects of students’ theses writing by
because effective feedback is feedback that is focused,
supervisors in this study was relatively higher than
clear, applicable, and encouraging (Lindemann, 2001).
other sub-categories of expressive functions. The
Also, praise has the ability to improve student academic
present report on directive clarification, therefore, can
or behavioral performance, but only if the student finds it
be interpreted in that the function of directive
reinforcing (Akin-Little, Eckert, Lovett, & Little, 2004).
instruction was also popular among the supervisors.
The expressive approval speech function motivates
In comparison to direct clarification, the
students to express their moral values and get them
supervisors exhibited less attention on directive
approved by their advisors. Conversely, it was found
instruction. Given the fact that the participants were
that the supervisors gave little or no value to this
university level graduate students, the result of this
function of written feedback (2.46%). The comments
study in this regard is not surprising as the supervisors
that showed the supervisors’ approval include: “I like
might have considered their students as matured enough
the organization of the literature. Generally, there are
to understand the direct instructions that order students
improvements in your introduction part in this draft. It
to revise accordingly without more clarification. This
is a good discussion.”
observation is reminiscent of the results of a large body
Although some researchers advocate that negative
of research that revealed that as learners’ levels of
feedback may help students to fully realize better
proficiency increase, they become more capable of
learning from criticism (Button, 2002; Goldstein,
correcting their own mistakes (Amrhein & Nassaji,
2004), students recommended that feedback should be
2010; Ferris, 2006;Ghandi & Maghsoudi, 2014; Jodaie
positive, consistent, timely, and clear with a balance
& Farrokhi, 2012; Lee, 2003).
between positive and constructive comments and
Nurie Student Thesis Writing 529

comments that critiqued their work (Bitchener et al., Supervisors’ Written Feedback Focus on Student
2011).If feedback is carefully targeted, especially with Thesis Writing
less efficient learners, it can enable students to acquire
and utilize appropriate strategies to process the The supervisors’ written feedback on their
objectives of learning(Hattie & Timperley, 2007). students’ theses writing will be discussed in relation to
In another research, it was revealed that students the three major areas: content knowledge (its accuracy,
wanted supervisors to demonstrate genuine interest in completeness and relevance), genre knowledge (the
their work, while at the same time recognizing that functions of different parts of a thesis), and linguistic
ultimately the work was the students’ responsibility accuracy and appropriateness (Bitchener et al., 2010).
(Bitchener et al, 2011). Given the students’ reported Therefore, the next step in presenting the results will be
the need for, and the value of, positive supervisor to explore what aspects of the students’ theses that the
written feedback (expressive approval), it is possible to supervisors emphasized.
claim that the supervisors would be more fruitful if they The most frequently commented-on written
reasonably considered this type of feedback in their feedback was on the genre knowledge. The written
written supervision to improve student thesis writing. comments forwarded by the supervisors include
A plethora of research also revealed that feedback concerns dealing with referencing and citations, the
that includes praise may be effective because it elicits a functions of different parts of a thesis, and the relevance
positive affective reaction, which often has been linked and appropriateness of the thesis for scientific research.
to increased motivation and higher goals and to The following were some of the examples:
improved student academic or behavioral performance
(Akin-Little et al., 2004; Gee, 2006). It is vital to  “You start with general idea and then move to
recognize that the inclusion of both negative and specific idea or contexts.”
positive feedback on a student thesis needs to be framed  “The citation and other formats should be
together to establish effective communication. consistent throughout your paper.”
Supervisors need to establish close rapport with their
students by designing constructive feedback that Overall, the supervisors’ major focus has been on
includes praise as well as criticism of their students’ providing feedback on the functions of different parts of a
thesis writing. Taken together, supervisors need to thesis to improve student thesis writing. This observation
consider the psychometric expectations of their students contrasts with the recent research reveals that supervisors’
so that feedback helps students overcome their focus of feedback in thesis writing has mainly been on
emotions, and such feedback impacts greatly on future content knowledge (Kumar & Stracke, 2007).Despite the
improvements. Also, an awareness of the “psychology fact that feedback constitutes a major form of instruction
of giving and receiving feedback is vitally important to for higher degree research students, the general focus of
student learning” (Carless, 2006). advisors has been reported written feedback on a micro-
Interestingly, the written feedback collected level (Bitchener et al.,2010) and the struggle to articulate
from the samples showed that the supervisors had implicit knowledge (Paré, 2011). It was also interesting to
showed their mixed reactions (both approvingly and observe that all of the supervisors shared their research
disapprovingly) to students’ thesis writing. As a experiences with students through their written comments
result, a new function of language that cannot be as as the role of supervisor is to guide the research student
categorized under either expressive approvals or throughout their study, provide the time, expertise and
expressive disapprovals emerged from the collected support to foster the candidate’s research skills and attitude
comments. The researcher preferred to use this and to ensure the production of a research of acceptable
language function as an “ambivalent” category. In standard (Heath, 2002).
this category, approval feedback is given as a form The second most frequently observed written
of reward for the students’ progress, and feedback in terms of what aspect of the students’ theses
simultaneously disapproval feedback is provided to was emphasized were comments that asked students to
show a total disagreement. Given the fact that the foster their content knowledge and display in their
written feedback the supervisors employed includes research. In terms of content knowledge—its accuracy,
conflicting comments to thesis writing completeness and relevance—the following comments
improvement, the result of this study may have that ask students to show their overall conceptual
implications for supervisors to revisit this kind of understanding were emphasized by the supervisors:
feedback mechanism since poorly presented or
uninformative feedback, rather than inadequacy of  “You did not raise anything about attitude.”
knowledge on the part of students, was responsible  “State clearly and specifically about the nature
for its low efficacy as a learning tool (Howie, Sy, of task based language learning/teaching.”
Ford & Vicente, 2000).  “You didn’t explain Melkote’s idea.”
Nurie Student Thesis Writing 530

Hyland (2009) posits that the most helpful present study was not the effect of supervisors’
feedback is that which helps students understand the different types of written feedback to improve students’
expectations of their disciplinary community. It theses writing. Rather, it was aimed at understanding
“conveys implicit messages” about the values and the types of written feedback most frequently used by
beliefs of the discourse community, the nature of the supervisors as part of the dialogic communications
disciplinary knowledge, and student identities in the with their students.
community (p. 132). Although the extent to which
evidence of feedback from samples of students’ Feedback Focus on Student Theses across TEFL
theses is not as high as expected, the supervisors’ and Media and Communications
preferences of providing feedback on content
exhibited in this study is partially consistent with a This section of the study presents the findings
plethora of research that confirmed that commentary related to the types of written feedback on which
on content was the category seen across the highest supervisors across the two disciplines focused when
number of scripts (Bitchener et al, 2011; Hyatt, they provided written feedback on student thesis
2005; Kumar & Stracke, 2007). writing. The first interesting theme arising from the
Compared to the other two major areas of research analysis of feedback from the two disciplines that was
writing, the supervisors showed little attention to the observed from the samples of supervisors’ written
quality of their students in terms of the linguistic feedback was the focus of comments with regard to
accuracy and appropriateness of the students’ thesis content knowledge on student thesis writing. The
writing. This was clearly exhibited by the students comparison results of the overall focus of supervisors
receiving only 12.91% of comments on these issues out on providing feedback to their students concerning
the total comments provided by the supervisors in this content knowledge showed that supervisors from TEFL
study. A few examples of written comments that asked and Media and Communications shared similar
students to revise, edit, or use the correct and formal concerns (27.72 % and 28.71% respectively), and the
language included the following: consistency of such comments were clearly observed
throughout the students’ papers.
 “Please give attention to the language, format The result of this study was particularly enlightening
and style of your writing.” about the focus of supervisors’ written feedback. It was
 “You still have to do a lot of editing and found that little or no attention was devoted to
proofreading.” commenting on the linguistic accuracy and
 “There are still a number of language appropriateness of a student thesis from either TEFL and
problems.” Media and Communications. From the shared experience,
the researcher had hypothesized that language supervisors
Taken together, the present study examined the from TEFL might favor feedback on linguistic accuracy
focus of supervisors on their students’ theses in the and appropriateness. Regardless of disciplines, however,
final section of the study and found that supervisors the result of this study was not corroborated by the notion
exhibited little or no attention to linguistic accuracy and that the supervisors’ experiences might differ with regard
appropriateness to students’ theses. However, apart to the discipline. Surprisingly, supervisors from Media and
from developing a close rapport with their students, Communications exhibited more commitment to comment
supervisors’ written feedback can also help foster the on matters of linguistic accuracy on a student thesis
students’ linguistic capability. The result of this study writing (14.85 %) than supervisors from TEFL (11.96%).
in this regard is in sharp contrast with previous research
by Bitchener et al (2011), who asserted that linguistic Implications
features, such as grammar, imprecise or vague
vocabulary, and coherence were more specifically From the literature, the importance of written
focused. The study also indicated that supervisors supervision for the improvement of student theses has
provide feedback on linguistic issues at the sentence been emphasized. Regarding this, the results of this
level, discourse feedback at the paragraph level, and study showed that examining the language functions
feedback on what is expected and required for the supervisors use to communicate with their advisees is
different parts of a thesis. helpful to understand the effectiveness of current
Data from examples of supervisors’ written supervisory practices. Given that the written feedback
feedback on student theses illustrated to what extent the supervisors employed was directed toward the
feedback was given on the accuracy, completeness, and graduates’ thesis writing improvement, the findings of
relevance of the content included in each section of the the present study may have implications for supervisors
thesis, as well as the linguistic accuracy and to further strengthen the other functions of feedback,
appropriateness of the final drafts. The focus of the especially expressive approval as this function of
Nurie Student Thesis Writing 531

language on their supervision was rare. Providing disciplines under this study. The study had rather
positive feedback is one of the most helpful and natural attempted to shed light on broad curricula across many
processes of learning. departments in higher education in general. As a whole,
Taken together, the fact that the language function the present research was designed to supplement the
of expressive disapproval the supervisors used overarching academic research and reinforce cross-
outnumbered the expressive approval function in the departmental understanding in higher education by
corpus proves that the supervisors’ written feedback examining the types of language functions, which is at
collected for this study does not consider the the heart of tertiary education, supervisors use to
psychometric expectations of their students. Thus, it is provide feedback to their students in thesis writing.
imperative to suggest that supervisors need to revisit However, the findings of this study may not be
their feedback mechanism as the student’s ability or generalized to other universities, and hence have
willingness to do the feedback might depend on the implication for future research. This study touched
emotional impact of feedback (Layder, 1997). Their upon a possibility of using evidence of feedback from
motives to do so or not may result from either positive samples of students’ theses, and hence there are
responses, such as deep consideration of the feedback numerous reasons to pursue further research that could
and reasoned rejection of it, or negative responses, such shed light on the strengths of using questionnaire and
as distrust of the feedback provider (Price et al., 2010). interview and including fair number of supervision
practices in various departments.
Conclusion
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Doctoral supervision…A view from above, below ____________________________
and the middle! Journal of Further and Higher
Education, 32, 71-84. YENUS NURIE is an assistant professor at Bahir
Searle, J.R. (1969). Speech acts. Cambridge, UK: Dar University, Ethiopia. Dr. Yenus offers
Cambridge University Press. undergraduate courses and also teaches in a STEM
Sperber, D., & Wilson, D. (1995). Relevance: center at Bahir Dar University. He published
Communication & cognition (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK research articles on pedagogical praprices, reading
& Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. comprehension and written feedback preferences.He
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative also actively participates in teaching and editorial
research: Techniques and procedures for developing services for the public at the town of Bahir Dar.