Feedback literacy for EFL speaking among first- and second-year Chinese English majors: structural associations and reported action strategies

Abstract

Feedback literacy concerns learners' capacities and dispositions to recognize the value of feedback, make evaluative judgments, manage affective responses, and take action. This quantitatively dominant mixed-methods study examined theory-informed associations among these four features using questionnaire data from 2,116 first- and second-year Chinese English majors, two student open-ended items, and interviews with 18 instructors. Data analysis used reflective Mode A partial least squares path modeling, 5,000 bootstrap resamples, and 10-fold PLSpredict repeated 10 times. All four hypothesized paths were positive (beta = 0.457–0.830, p < 0.001), with R2 values of 0.532–0.730. However, HTMT values ranged from 0.921 to 1.022 and all exceeded 0.90, indicating inadequate discriminant validity. SRMR was 0.071 for the saturated model and 0.079 for the estimated model. Q2_predict values were positive (0.257–0.531), but the linear benchmark had lower RMSE for 13 of 14 indicators, indicating limited out-of-sample predictive advantage. Qualitative themes emphasized targeted practice, self-assessment, feedback seeking, actionable comments, affective support, and structured peer dialogue. The findings support an intertwined rather than fixed developmental view of speaking-feedback literacy and require cautious interpretation because of construct overlap and cross-sectional self-report data.