From feedback-as-information to feedback-as-process: a linguistic analysis of the feedback literature

Feedback is a term used so frequently that it is commonly taken that there is a shared view about what it means. However, in recent years, the notion of feedback as simply the provision of information to students about their work has been substantially challenged and learning-centred views have been articulated. This paper employs a corpus linguistics approach to analyse the use of the term 'feedback' in research articles published in key higher education journals on the topic over two five-year periods: 2009-2013 and 2015-2019. Analysis focused on the most common noun modifiers of 'feedback' and nouns modified by 'feedback', verbs with 'feedback' as the object, possessors of 'feedback', and prepositions representing an action or concept on or with 'feedback'. Whilst the analysis demonstrated that transmission-focused conceptions dominate publications on feedback, linguistic signifiers of a shift over time in representation of feedback away from a transmission-focus towards a learning-focus were evident within each grammatical relation category. The data indicate that the term 'feedback' is used by different authors to refer to very different representations of the concept, and the paper proposes that greater clarity in the representation of feedback is needed.

Automated summary

The paper utilizes corpus linguistics to analyze the usage of the term 'feedback' in research articles from higher education journals over two five-year periods. It shows that while transmission-focused conceptions dominate publications on feedback, there are linguistic signifiers of a shift towards a learning-focus over time within each grammatical relation category. The data suggests that there is a need for greater clarity in the representation of feedback as different authors use the term to refer to varied concepts.