Effects of Written Corrective Feedback on College EFL Students’Writing Accuracy and Linguistic Knowledge Acquisition

Set at the interface between second language acquisition and second language writing,this study examines how different types of written corrective feedback(WCF)influence the writing accuracy of Chinese college students learning English as a Foreign Language(EFL)and whether WCF facilitates the students’grasp of the focused linguistic knowledge.The participants(n=60)were divided into direct correction group(n=20),indirect error-coding group(n=20)and metalinguistic explanation group(n=20).The three groups wrote four essays in two months and received WCF for the first three essays on the five targeted error types,namely tense errors,confusion of different forms of a word,word(articles,prepositions,etc.)missing,errors in subjectverb agreement and inappropriate verb-noun collocations.The results show that all three types of WCF improved students’writing accuracy but none of them had any statistical advantage,and the metalinguistic WCF was more effective than the other two forms in facilitating the acquisition of the targeted linguistic features.These results shed some light on teaching and consolidation of language points through writing in EFL contexts.

Macao Secondary School EFL Teachers' Perspectives on Written Corrective Feedback: Rationales and Constraints

Corrective feedback on writing(WCF)has been one of the most controversial topics in ESL/EFL teaching.In the past decades,much has been disputed regarding the effectiveness and preferences of the quantity,focus,directness and source of WCF.With so much uncertainty,the researcher set out to investigate how research-informed secondary school teachers in Macao reported their beliefs,rationales,practices and constraints of administering corrective feedback for EFL writing in Macao secondary schools.Twelve secondary school teachers were recruited at a TESOL conference to conduct focus-group discussions.Similar to previous findings,results suggest teachers had clear rationales as to their ways of practising WCF.However,many expressed difficulties in acting according to rationales and beliefs.Despite their experience and knowledge,practical constraints such as school policies and teacher workload made it unlikely for them to follow their thoughts with feedback on writing.This study identified six sources of constraints that could prohibit practices and potentially reshape ones’beliefs,which sheds light on future directions of WCF research.

The Effects of Learner’s Individual Differences on the Written Corrective Feedback

From the perspective of individual learner differences,this paper aims to show the readers an outline of the influence of individual learner differences on written corrective feedback.Based on 200 eighth and ninth grade junior high school students’thinking patterns and tests,60 students were selected as subjects in this study.Based on the comparative analysis and error analysis in second language acquisition as the main theoretical basis,this study analyzed the common types of errors in the use of nonpredicate verbs in junior high school students and their causes.There are three main questions in this study:how about the error frequency of the five forms(present participle,past participle,infinitive,gerund and independent nominative structure)in the nonpredicate verb learning of junior high school students?What kind of mistakes do junior high school students make in the process of learning non-predicate verbs?According to the conclusion of the investigation and research,the author puts forward some suggestions from the aspects of teachers and students in the last part of the article.

The Effects of Written Corrective Feedback on Chinese EFL Learners' Acquisition of English Collocations

The role of written corrective feedback（CF） in the process of acquiring a second language（L2） has been an issue of considerable controversies over past decades. This study thus endeavors to extend current work on written CF by investigating and comparing the effect on collocation learning of one traditional type of feedback—direct corrective feedback（DCF）—with an innovative type of error correction, feedback provided within context—situated feedback（SF）. The effects of the two types of written feedback were measured by examining the accurate use of target collocations in a translation test and a multiple choice test completed by 73 intermediate EFL students in China. Three groups were formed： a DCF group, an SF group, and a control group. The study found that both treatment groups outperformed the control group in the posttests and delayed posttests and that there were significant advantages of the SF group in comparison to the DCF group in both posttests. The results suggested that the provision of written CF was helpful for collocation learning and that situational context could promote the facilitative role of written CF in language acquisition. These findings are discussed from the perspectives of both second language acquisition（SLA） theory and language pedagogy and implications for future research efforts are put forward.