Effects of Asynchronous and Conventional Paper-and-Pen Metalinguistic Feedback on L۲ Learners' Use of Verb Tense

Although L۲ researchers agree that written corrective feedback (WCF) improves L۲ learners' grammatical accuracy, few systematic studies have investigated the effect of computer-mediated feedback on improving L۲ learners' grammatical accuracy. This study was an attempt to investigate the comparative effects of two types of WCF (asynchronous computer-mediated and conventional paper-and-pen metalinguistic feedback on intermediate L۲ learners' use of verb tense. The participants were ۴۹ L۲ learners chosen via convenience sampling whose ages ranged from ۱۸-۲۵. They were in ۳ intact settings in Simin Institute in Tehran. They were assigned into ۳ groups: ۲ experimental and ۱ control. To measure the participants' knowledge of verb tense before treatment, a pretest was administered. In the next step, the experimental groups received metalinguistic feedback in separate settings whereas the control group did not receive any treatment. Finally, a posttest was used to measure the participants' knowledge of verb tense after the treatment. Though the ANOVA findings suggested that both types of WCF resulted in the improvement of the participants' verb tense accuracy, the effect of computer-mediated asynchronous feedback on the use of verb tense was more profound. In a conclusion, WCF had a significant effect on the verb tense accuracy of intermediate L۲ learners.

Keywords:

asynchronous feedback , computer-mediated feedback , grammatical accuracy , metalinguistic feedback , written corrective feedback