A Preliminary Investigation Into the Effects of Targeted Corrective Feedback in Foreign Language Writing
A Preliminary Investigation Into the Effects of Targeted Corrective Feedback in Foreign Language Writing

Summary/Abstract: The benefits of corrective feedback on student writing have been the subject of some debate in recent years. Recent studies have suggested that error correction on student writing improves written accuracy in student writing over time. However, it still remains unclear as to the kind of error correction that best assists L2 students in particular settings to improve accuracy. This paper addresses this issue. It reports on a classroom study of forty-eight first -year university students who were divided into two groups. One group received indirect correction on errors and the other group received indirect correction in combination with teacher conferencing. Error ratios per fifty words on errors of the use of the simple past tense were calculated. Results suggest that teacher conferencing used in connection with indirect correction improved student accuracy in the use of the simple past tense. Results also suggest that students require further instruction on how to self-correct tense errors.

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