Responding to student writing - power and role relations

Abstract

The focus of this article falls on the political and power relations that appear to be inherent in response to student writing. The students involved in this research are first-year Practical English students at Unisa, the vast majority of whom are studying English as an additional language. The researcher is aware of the vast discrepancy between South African students studying in the distance-teaching context and the American classroom context in which much of the research in the field has been conducted to date. Consequently the teacher's response to student writing is restricted in this article to written ftedback given by distance-teaching lecturers to student writing submitted for assignments.Hierdie artikel fokus op die politieke en magsverhoudings wat inherent blyk te wees in die reaksie van onderwysers!dosente op studente se skryfwerk Die studente betrokke by hierdie navorsing is eerstejaar Praktiese Engelse studente van UNISA. Die meerderheid van hulle neem Engels as addisionele taal. Die navorser is bewus van die enorme verskille wat bestaan tussen die konteks van Suid-Afrikaanse studente wat afstandsonderrig ontvang en die konteks van die Amerikaanse klaskamer (waarop die meeste veldnavorsing tot dusver gerig is). Gevolglik word die bespreking van onderwysers se reaksie op studente se skryfwerk in hierdie artikel beperk tot geskrewe terugvoer gelewer deur afstandsonderrig-dosente op studente se skryfwerk wat as werkstukke ingelewer is.