Feedback mechanisms and collaborative strategies in academic writing instruction: A study of lecturers’ practices

Phethani Progress Mudau ORCID iD, Madoda Cekiso ORCID iD & Itani Peter Mandende ORCID iD

Issue: Vol. 7 No. 6 2026 Article 6 pp.653 – 665
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/jelt.2026766 Published online 31st  July 2026.

© 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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This study examined the feedback mechanisms and collaborative strategies used by lecturers in teaching academic writing at a selected university in South Africa, focusing on their perceived effectiveness, challenges, and ways of improvement. Despite its importance, many students struggle with academic writing due to diverse linguistic backgrounds, limited previous writing experience, and discipline-specific conventions. These challenges place increasing pressure on lecturers to provide support that goes beyond error correction to foster deeper learning and independent writing skills. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten lecturers from various academic disciplines. The data was analysed thematically, revealing six interconnected themes. The findings indicate that while traditional feedback practices such as written comments and corrections remain dominant, there is a gradual shift towards collaborative strategies, including peer review, co-constructed writing activities, and technology-mediated feedback. The effectiveness of these strategies is largely dependent on student engagement, manageable workloads for lecturers, and institutional support. Collaborative practices were also found to promote a sense of academic community and encourage active participation in the writing process. The study recommends that higher education institutions provide professional development opportunities, ensure manageable workloads, and adopt flexible curricula to enable lecturers to integrate traditional and collaborative approaches effectively. This study contributes to scholarship by extending the understanding of lecturers’ perceptions and practices in academic writing instruction within the South African higher education context. It provides empirical insights into how traditional and collaborative feedback approaches can be integrated to strengthen academic writing pedagogy.

Keywords: Academic writing, feedback mechanisms, collaborative strategies, higher education and pedagogy.

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Dr Phethani Progress Mudau is a Lecturer and Researcher in the Department of Applied Languages at the Faculty of Humanities, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. His scholarly pursuits are situated within the domains of Sociolinguistics and Applied Linguistics, with a distinguished focus on the intricate interplay between language, culture, identity, and society. His primary research interests encompass Indigenous Tshivenḓa forms of address, language and identity, Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), language revitalisation and preservation, multilingualism and language contact, indigenous communities, indigenous pedagogy and education, as well as sociolinguistic variation. His secondary research interests include academic writing, reading and literacies, discourse and pragmatics, language education and pedagogy, error analysis, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), professional and workplace communication, curriculum design and assessment in language education, multilingualism and language policy in education, and technology-enhanced language learning. Dr Mudau’s scholarship is underpinned by a commitment to intellectual rigour, educational transformation, and the advancement of socially responsive linguistic research that enriches both academic discourse and community development in multilingual contexts.

Madoda Cekiso is a professor in the Department of Applied Languages at Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. He holds a PhD in English Applied Language Studies from the University of North-West, Potchefstroom Campus. His research interests include reading and
writing in a second language, learning styles, onomastics, and second-language teaching methods.

Professor Itani Peter Mandende is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Languages at Tshwane University of Technology. He earned a Doctor of Literature and Philosophy in African Languages from the University of South Africa. His primary research focuses on sociolinguistics, onomastics (the study of names), African languages, and indigenous knowledge systems. His publications include: Personal names as communicative tools in Tshivenḓa: Cultural-historical perspectives; Indigenous Language preservation: A study of the Tshivenḓa speech community in South Africa; and Not on my watch: Decolonial (re) clamations of my Tshimanda, my identity, my language. One of his publications, A socio-onomastic analysis of some government school names in the Vhembe District of Limpopo province, was awarded the best research by the African Languages Association for South Africa (ALASA) in 2024.

Mudau, Phethani Progress, Madoda Cekiso, and Itani Peter Mandende. “Feedback mechanisms and collaborative strategies in academic writing instruction: A study of lecturers’ practices.” Journal of Education and Learning Technology 7, no.6 (2026): 653 – 665. https://doi.org/10.38159/jelt.2026766

© 2026 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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