effects of direct and indirect feedback on the accurate use of grammatical forms in diary writing by iranian EFL learners

Writing is an important skill that all language learners need to develop because it allows learners to communicate effectively in the second language. The significant role of feedback in writing has been the focus of attention in recent second language research. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of using direct and indirect feedback on the accurate use of grammatical forms in diary writing by Iranian EFL Learners. To achieve this purpose, 48 students from three intact classes were selected to participate in the present study. They were studying English as a foreign language at intermediate level in Shokouh's English language Institute in Gorgan, Iran. First, Oxford Placement Test (OPT) was administered among all three classes to check their homogeneity. Then the three classes were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and a control group. A pretest of diary writing was administered to all three groups to record their writing ability level before treatment, and then the three groups received treatment for 10 sessions. One of the experimental groups received written direct feedback and the other one received written indirect feedback, respectively, and the control group received no feedback for the grammatical errors in the diary writing. A posttest of diary writing was then administered to all three groups. The collected data from pretest and posttest were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA . The result indicated that there was a significant difference in the writing ability of the students who received either direct or indirect feedback and those who did not receive any feedback. The experimental groups outperformed the control one. The result also indicated that the participants in the indirect experimental group outperformed the participants in the direct experimental group on diary writing posttest. The findings have some pedagogical implications for EFL writing teachers .

Keywords:

Writing , Dairy Writing , Grammatical Forms , Feedback , Indirect Feedback , Direct Feedback