MODEL TEXTS AS A FEEDBACK INSTRUMENT IN EXPOSITORY WRITING: EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN VIETNAMESE EFL LEARNERS’ AFFECTIVE ENGAGEMENT AND THEIR WRITING PERFORMANCE

As an alternative to written corrective feedback, model texts as a feedback instrument (MTFI) have been deployed to facilitate English as a foreign language (EFL) writing for almost two decades. However, past MTFI research mainly focused on narratives over a three-stage task including composing (stage one), comparing (stage two), and rewriting (stage three); expository writing still receives insufficient attention, especially in the Vietnamese context. Moreover, EFL learners’ affective engagement with MTFI and its relationship with writing performance are largely underexplored. This study aimed to address these gaps by employing a quasi-experimental design with the participation of 68 Vietnamese EFL undergraduates who were assigned into a control group (N = 33) and a modeling group (N = 35). While the modeling group compared their original draft with a given model in stage two and completed a questionnaire in stage three, the control group did not. The results showed that the modeling group significantly outperformed the control group in the overall writing score. Additionally, Exploratory Factor Analysis and repeated measure correlations revealed that the learners’ affective engagement with MTFI was generally positive, which was substantially associated with their overall writing performance. This study also entailed discussions on theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications that might be of great value to researchers and education stakeholders.