Chinese EFL Teachers' Writing Assessment Feedback Literacy: A Scale Development and Validation Study

Teacher feedback plays a crucial role in various aspects of second/foreign language education. It can signpost teaching effectiveness and foster students' learning. However, the role of feedback in assessing language skills and the literacy required to deliver feedback during assessment has remained a desideratum. As an important language skill, writing needs teacher literacy and effective feedback during instruction and assessment. Nonetheless, the literature lacks a valid scale to measure the writing assessment feedback literacy of EFL teachers. Moreover, the underlying components of this construct have yet remained unclear. Against these gaps, this study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire on EFL teachers' writing assessment feedback literacy in China. In so doing, 517 Chinese EFL teachers completed a newly designed scale. The results of factor analysis indicated four components and 32 items in the questionnaire. The extracted components were "assessment feedback competence", "assessment feedback practices", "knowledge of writing assessment feedback", and "knowledge of useful techniques". Moreover, the discriminant validity, composite reliability, and goodness of fit of the scale were statistically confirmed. Finally, the study presents some implications for EFL teachers, assessors, and teacher educators, who can increase their knowledge of writing assessment feedback literacy and its components.