Exploring EFL teachers’ cognitions and practices of assessment feedback on learners’ L2 writing at a Saudi university

Assessment feedback is pivotal to the process of L2 teaching and learning. Assessment standards have also become a key element in accountability measures among ‘high-stakes’ tertiary educational settings in Saudi Arabia, and worldwide. As a result, the role of teachers in high-stakes assessments has changed over time. One crucial aspect is the response to institutional concerns over the value of teachers’ practices (underpinned by their cognitions) in what have become measures of educational outcomes. Using Borg’s (2006) model of language teacher cognition as a theoretical framework and guide for the research questions, this study analyses teachers’ responses to curricular changes, within the national educational transformation plan led by Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. Drawing on data collected before the Covid-19 pandemic, the study explores the cases of five EFL teachers, in search of their cognitions and practices of assessment feedback. This is contextualised based on teachers’ self-reported and actual feedback practices on their students’ writing during a seven-week course of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) at a Saudi university.