Understanding individual differences in lower-proficiency students' engagement with teacher written corrective feedback

While research on written corrective feedback (WCF) has proliferated over the past three decades, scant attention has been paid to how lower-proficiency (LP) students engage with teacher WCF in specific contexts and why they (dis)engage in the ways they do. This case study explored two Chinese LP students' engagement with teacher WCF in English writing for an in-depth understanding of the individual differences in their engagement and the influencing factors. By analyzing teacher WCF, students' essay drafts, immediate oral reports, and retrospective interviews, the study revealed that (1) their engagement was distinctively different in terms that one's engagement was relatively extensive, especially in the affective aspect, but the other's engagement was at a relatively limited level, characterized by negative emotions and scant cognitive engagement, and (2) their differences in engagement could be attributed to the individual factors of studentbeliefsandgoals, and the contextual factor ofteacher-student relationship.