A Quasi-Experimental Study Investigating the Effect of Written Corrective Feedback on Students' Writing Accuracy

Abstract

It has been widely recognized that writing is one of the most critical micro-skills in language teaching and learning. Therefore, a number of researchers in ELT have been concerned about the impact of written corrective feedback (WCF) provision on students' writing proficiency. Research produced opposing and inconclusive results on this issue, which suggests that there is not yet a general consensus among researchers on its efficacy. This being the case, the purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of providing WCF on S4 students' writing accuracy at the School of Arts and Humanities in Meknes. The researcher deployed a quasi-experimental case study design. Research instruments consisted of pre-tests and post-tests taken by the control group and the experimental one, questionnaires to explore teachers' and students' preferences of WCF techniques, and interviews with teachers to investigate the challenges inhibiting them from providing direct WCF. The results revealed that the control group was disadvantaged in learning writing as they showed lower achievement scores compared to the experimental group. Results also indicated a mismatch between teachers' and students' preferences for WCF techniques and that teachers are reluctant to provide WCF due to the large size of classes. In conclusion, this paper offers a number of pedagogical implications addressed to teachers and students.