AZCALL 2020
Virtual Conference
Grammarly for Dynamic Corrective Written Feedback
Daeun Shin & Michael D. Winans; Arizona State University
Biographies
Daeun Shin is a second year Ph.D. student in the Linguistics and Applied Linguistics program. She is currently a teaching associate in the Writing Program in the English department. Her research interests are Korean language education, emotion, and digital discourse analysis.
Michael D. Winans is a doctoral student in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics and currently teaches courses on writing and linguistics. His research interests include computer-assisted language learning and the future of English in the context of globalization and the internet. He has been published by TESOL Press, Language Learning & Technology, and CALICO Journal.
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Abstract
This presentation will detail in-progress research with preliminary results for use of a digital tool that provides grammar and mechanical feedback (Grammarly) as a substitute for teacher-produced dynamic corrective written feedback (DCWF) in four English second Language (L2), first-year composition classrooms. The research questions examine how the aggregate data for productivity (realized by number of words produced), mastery (realized by the number of alerts about grammar or mechanics), and vocabulary (realized by the number of unique words used) affects participants’ perceptions of progress and ability to compose in English for academic contexts. Further, it examined L2 writers' improvement in mastery by tracking this data point and by reflecting on the top three errors as reported by a weekly email generated by Grammarly.
This study would contribute to a line of inquiry about DWCF (Evans, Hartshorn, McCollum, & Wolfersberger, 2010) by exploring the use of digital tools for computer-assisted language learning, utilizing a recent trend for natural language processing called transformer models, which are able to “distill the linguistic knowledge into statistical patterns” (Alikaniotis & Raheja, 2019). Since the development of writing is gradual and often below the level of awareness (Ferris, 2010), exposing students to these statistical patterns would raise their awareness of progress which could, in turn, affect their ability to develop self-efficacious beliefs about their ability to improve.
Participants would gain experience with a tool that could lessen their reliance on teacher feedback while teachers could benefit in having more independent students who are getting feedback based on their individual needs from Grammarly. They would have more time to address common errors and give individual attention. Since the goal of a writing class is to produce students who can write outside of the composition classroom, implementation of Grammarly would situate writers beyond the classroom and university.
