Impact of written corrective feedback on development of two functional uses of English article In iranian English learners

The call for more investigation on efficacy of WCF and its teqniques in second and foreign languge acquisition has been made repeatedly since Truscott s claim that it is ineffective and even harmfull. This article presents 8month investigation of effects of WCF on two functional uses of English article system given to 56 lowintermediate English learners at a university in Karaj, Iran. They were randomly assigned to four groups (directCF and written metalinguistic explanation and oral explanation, direct CF and written metalinguistic explanation and indirect circling of errors and contorol group), and produced three pieces of writing ( pretest,immidiate post-test, delayed post-test). A two way repeated measures ANOVA was conducted . Results showed that Each of treatment groups outperformed control groups in immidiate post- test.The level of accuracy ofgroup one that received direct CF and metalinguistc explanation and oral explanation and group two that received direct CF and metalinguistc explanation was retained in delayed post-test. However group three that was given indirect circling of errors couldn’t maintain this retention.

Keywords:

corrective feedback , written CF , direct corrective feedback , indirect corrective feedback