Does Time Matter? Investigating the Effect of Written Corrective Feedback on Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing Accuracy

Written corrective feedback (WCF) refers to the corrective responses that learners receive when they produce a linguistic error (Lyster et al. 2012). Although different studies have addressed the effects of written corrective feedback on students’ writing accuracy, few studies have addressed the issue on a more long term basis. To fill this gap, the current research was conducted to investigated wethere the effect of WCF on high-proficiency and low-proficiency Iranian EFL learners’ writing accuracy is long lasting. The participants of this study consisted of 60 EFL intermediate and advanced male learners studying English at an English Language Institution located in Shahr-e-Qods, Tehran, Iran. The participants were equally divided into 4 groups, namely two experimental groups and two control groups, each including 15 students. The participants in the experimental groups received coded feedback on their errors regarding their essays. However, the participants in the control group did not receive any feedback on their errors. The data of the present study was collected through pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test. As far as the data analysis is concerned, SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) software and various statistical measures includingMauchlys’ test, and one-way repeated measure ANOVA were applied. The result showed written corrective feedback has a significant effect on high-proficiency and low- proficiency learners’ writing accuracy implying that this effect enjoys stability during the time. This study, also, provides pedagogical implications concerning to the utilization of WCF in EFL learning and teaching as an effective tool.

Keywords:

written corrective feedback , writing accuracy , high-proficiency learners , low-proficiency learners