ABSTRACT

Supervisory feedback is crucial for students to accomplish graduate research and learn from the process. Despite its importance, supervisory feedback on master’s theses has been under-researched. This article presents the findings of a mixed-methods study that examined supervisory feedback on English medium master’s theses in the English-as-a-foreign-language context of Nepal. The study sample consisted of 118 thesis drafts and 32 interviews across four disciplines at a comprehensive public university in Nepal. Analyses revealed that a considerable amount of supervisory feedback was outright criticism, which students found demotivating, discouraging, and self-esteem busting. Overall, supervisory feedback seemed to create little affordance for students’ academic discourse socialisation. The analyses also demonstrated disciplinary variations in the formulation and functions of feedback comments. Pedagogical implications derived from findings are provided to enhance the effectiveness of supervisory feedback.

摘要

监督反馈对于学生完成研究生研究并从过程中学习至关重要。尽管它很重要，但对硕士论文的监督反馈尚未得到充分研究。本文介绍了一项混合方法研究的结果，该研究检查了尼泊尔英语作为外语背景下对英语媒体硕士论文的监督反馈。研究样本包括尼泊尔一所综合性公立大学四个学科的 118 篇论文草稿和 32 次访谈。分析显示，相当多的监督反馈是彻头彻尾的批评，学生们认为这些反馈令人沮丧、沮丧和自尊心受到打击。总体而言，监督反馈似乎对学生的学术话语社会化几乎没有影响。分析还表明反馈意见的制定和功能存在学科差异。提供了从调查结果中得出的教学意义，以提高监督反馈的有效性。