Feedback precision and learners’ responses: A study into ETS Criterion automated corrective feedback in EFL writing classrooms

Abstract

This study examines the implementation of Criterion, an automated writing evaluation system developed by ETS, as a source of diagnostic feedback on learners’ linguistic performance in a Vietnamese EFL writing classroom. Thirty-eight second-year English majors had access to Criterion for a five-month period. Data include Criterion error tags on students’ essays from multiple practice sessions, recorded think-aloud protocols as students engaged with the feedback for revisions, and first and revised drafts students submitted to Criterion. The main findings indicate Criterion’s satisfactory precision and capacity to trigger various engagement strategies among learners, but reservations remain due to students’ modest response accuracy and lack of substantive revisions to their texts. Important implications for formative feedback practices in EFL writing classrooms and the adaptation of Criterion’s technical capacities are accordingly presented.