The effect of written corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy of EFL students: An improvement over previous unfocused designs

The effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) in the improvement of language learners' grammatical accuracy has been a topic of interest in SLA studies for the past couple of decades. The present study reports the findings of a three-month study investigating the effect...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mobin Khanlarzadeh, Majid Nemati
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Urmia University 2016-07-01
Series:Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.urmia.ac.ir/sites/www.urmia.ac.ir/files/1602%20%284%29.pdf
_version_ 1818563881753116672
author Mobin Khanlarzadeh
Majid Nemati
author_facet Mobin Khanlarzadeh
Majid Nemati
author_sort Mobin Khanlarzadeh
collection DOAJ
description The effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) in the improvement of language learners' grammatical accuracy has been a topic of interest in SLA studies for the past couple of decades. The present study reports the findings of a three-month study investigating the effect of direct unfocused WCF on the grammatical accuracy of elementary students in an EFL context. The researchers selected two intact classes totaling 33 students, and assigned each to a direct feedback group (n = 16) and a control group (n = 17). The students produced eight pieces of writing (a pretest, three writing tasks along with their revisions, and a posttest) from which their grammatical accuracy was obtained. The results indicated that while the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in the revision of the three writing tasks, no significant difference was found when the two groups produced a new piece of writing after a one-month interval. The study concludes that accuracy improvement caused by unfocused WCF during the revision process does not extend to EFL learners' future writing when no feedback is available, at least at the elementary level.
first_indexed 2024-12-14T01:22:08Z
format Article
id doaj.art-9a331df1382e4874b6bdaace5e5e3bcd
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2322-1291
2322-1291
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-14T01:22:08Z
publishDate 2016-07-01
publisher Urmia University
record_format Article
series Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research
spelling doaj.art-9a331df1382e4874b6bdaace5e5e3bcd2022-12-21T23:22:21ZengUrmia UniversityIranian Journal of Language Teaching Research2322-12912322-12912016-07-01425568The effect of written corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy of EFL students: An improvement over previous unfocused designsMobin Khanlarzadeh0Majid Nemati1Imam Khomeini International UniversityUniversity of TehranThe effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) in the improvement of language learners' grammatical accuracy has been a topic of interest in SLA studies for the past couple of decades. The present study reports the findings of a three-month study investigating the effect of direct unfocused WCF on the grammatical accuracy of elementary students in an EFL context. The researchers selected two intact classes totaling 33 students, and assigned each to a direct feedback group (n = 16) and a control group (n = 17). The students produced eight pieces of writing (a pretest, three writing tasks along with their revisions, and a posttest) from which their grammatical accuracy was obtained. The results indicated that while the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in the revision of the three writing tasks, no significant difference was found when the two groups produced a new piece of writing after a one-month interval. The study concludes that accuracy improvement caused by unfocused WCF during the revision process does not extend to EFL learners' future writing when no feedback is available, at least at the elementary level.http://www.urmia.ac.ir/sites/www.urmia.ac.ir/files/1602%20%284%29.pdferror correctiongrammatical accuracygrammatical errorwritingwritten corrective feedback
spellingShingle Mobin Khanlarzadeh
Majid Nemati
The effect of written corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy of EFL students: An improvement over previous unfocused designs
Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research
error correction
grammatical accuracy
grammatical error
writing
written corrective feedback
title The effect of written corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy of EFL students: An improvement over previous unfocused designs
title_full The effect of written corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy of EFL students: An improvement over previous unfocused designs
title_fullStr The effect of written corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy of EFL students: An improvement over previous unfocused designs
title_full_unstemmed The effect of written corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy of EFL students: An improvement over previous unfocused designs
title_short The effect of written corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy of EFL students: An improvement over previous unfocused designs
title_sort effect of written corrective feedback on grammatical accuracy of efl students an improvement over previous unfocused designs
topic error correction
grammatical accuracy
grammatical error
writing
written corrective feedback
url http://www.urmia.ac.ir/sites/www.urmia.ac.ir/files/1602%20%284%29.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT mobinkhanlarzadeh theeffectofwrittencorrectivefeedbackongrammaticalaccuracyofeflstudentsanimprovementoverpreviousunfocuseddesigns
AT majidnemati theeffectofwrittencorrectivefeedbackongrammaticalaccuracyofeflstudentsanimprovementoverpreviousunfocuseddesigns
AT mobinkhanlarzadeh effectofwrittencorrectivefeedbackongrammaticalaccuracyofeflstudentsanimprovementoverpreviousunfocuseddesigns
AT majidnemati effectofwrittencorrectivefeedbackongrammaticalaccuracyofeflstudentsanimprovementoverpreviousunfocuseddesigns