Indonesian University Students’ Appropriating Grammarly for Formative Feedback

Abstract

Formative feedback both on form and content is generally valued by teachers and students. The development of technology creates the affordances of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) in generating formative feedback. While many writing classes integrate the machine in the instruction, AWE and technology accesses allow students to utilize the machine independently. This study aims to explore the motivation and perspective of university students in appropriating Grammarly in instruction which does not promote AWE. Employing narrative inquiry, the experience of 2 Indonesian university students was gathered by means of personal narratives and interview. It is found that the participants’ independent Grammarly appropriation is to be motivated by the nature of teacher feedback, belief in learning, feedback preference and English proficiency. Also, their proficiency shapes their appropriating behavior and perspective about the machine generated feedback. It seems that students’ AWE appropriation is influenced by their belief about learning, preference on feedback and language proficiency.