Junior high school students’ engagement with automated feedback in EFL writing: a case from China

Given the crucial role of student engagement with written corrective feedback (WCF) in facilitating writing performance and development, this study used a mixed-methods approach to explore how an under-researched learner group, Chinese junior high school students ( n  = 578), engaged with automated feedback provided by a popular automated writing evaluation (AWE) system (i.e., Pigai), the impact of the attitude variable on engagement, and the effect of engagement on writing improvement. An engagement with automated feedback scale based on Ellis’ tripartite conceptualization of engagement with feedback was developed and validated, demonstrating good reliability and validity. Structural Equation Modeling was employed for data analysis. Results showed that this sample of junior high school learners displayed high-level engagement manifested in three dimensions, i.e., behavioral, cognitive, and affective. Additionally, students’ rather positive attitudes towards WCF and towards the use of technology in language learning exerted significant impacts on all engagement dimensions. In terms of the predictive effect, among the three dimensions, only behavioral engagement could significantly positively predict students’ improvement. Implications were offered for secondary EFL writing pedagogy as well as for AWE tool development.