| Summary: | Learning a foreign language takes place step by step, during which mistakes are
to be expected in all stages of learning. EFL learners are usually afraid of making mistakes which
prevents them from being receptive and responsive. Overcoming fear of mistakes depends on the way
mistakes are rectified. It is believed that autonomy and learner-centeredness suggest that in some
settings learner's self-correction of mistakes might be more beneficial for language learning than
teacher's correction. This assumption has been the subject of debates for some time. Some
researchers believe that correction whether that of teacher's or on behalf of learners is effective in
showing them how their current interlanguage differs from the target (Long &Robinson, 1998).
Others suggest that correcting the students whether directly or through recasts are ambiguous and
may be perceived by the learner as confirmation of meaning rather than feedback on form (Lyster,
1998a). This study is intended to investigate the effects of correction on Iranian intermediate EFL
learners' writing composition in Payam Noor University. For this purpose, 90 English majoring
students, studying at Isfahan Payam Noor University were invited to participate at the experiment.
They all received a sample of TOFEL test and a total number of 60 participants whose scores were
within the range of one standard deviation below and above the mean were divided into two equal
groups; experimental and control. The experimental group went through some correction during the
experiment while the control group remained intact and the ordinary processes of teaching went on.
Each group received twelve sessions of two hour classes every week on advanced writing course in
which some activities of Modern English (II) were selected. Then after the treatment both groups
received an immediate test as post-test and the experimental group took the second post-test as the
delayed recall test with the same design as the pre-test. In order to see whether there is a significant
difference between the participants' attitudes toward correction before and after the treatment, an
attitude questionnaire was administered to the experimental group and the subjects were asked to fill
it. The result indicates that there is a significant difference betw
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