On the Efficacy of Explicit Corrective Feedback on Descriptive Writing Accuracy of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

Since the emergence of the process-oriented approach in second language writinginstruction, the issues of writing instruction have been predominantly concernedwith what and how error feedback should be given to the students’ writing. Thepresent study investigated the effect of explicit corrective feedback on writingaccuracy of Iranian intermediate EFL learners (N = 44) in Hamedan Islamic AzadUniversity. The three most frequent occurring errors in EFL learners’ writingpre-test were chosen to be targeted. Two groups were formed: the explicitcorrective feedback group (N= 22), and the control group (N= 20). Paired samplest-tests revealed that both the explicit and control groups increased their writingaccuracy in immediate post-test in comparison with pre-test, but Independent ttestindicated that there was not a statistically significant difference between themean scores of the control and experiment groups (p = 0.65). In delayed post-test,there was no significant differences between writing accuracy of explicit andcontrol groups (p= 0.72). Paired samples t-tests indicated that there was nosignificant accuracy mean difference between writing pre-test and delayed posttestof the explicit group. The writing accuracy gain of the control group indelayed post-test in comparison with writing pre-test was statistically significant.Keywords: Corrective feedback, Explicit Corrective Feedback, Accuracy, SecondForeign Language Acquisition

Keywords:

Corrective feedback , Explicit Corrective Feedback , Accuracy , Second Foreign Language Acquisition