The Effect of Reactive Focused Corrective Feedback on Iranian EFL Learners’ Writing performance

Abstract

The role of corrective feedback in language acquisition has been a highly controversial issue. The present study aims to investigate the effects of direct and indirect corrective feedback on intermediate EFL learners' narrative writing. To this end, sixty intermediate EFL learners, aged 16-17, of a language institute in Tehran, Iran were selected as the participants of this study. After administering Nelson Test to 90 students, sixty homogeneous subjects were chosen and assigned to three groups including one control, and two experimental groups. Participants in experimental groups received treatments, that is, one experimental group (N=20) received directive corrective feedback and the other experimental group (N=20) received indirect corrective feedback and control group (N=20) didn’t receive any corrective feedback during the course of teaching EFL narrative writing. Finally, at the end of the course participants in these groups sat for the posttest. Results of t-test analysis indicated that participants in indirect corrective feedback significantly outperformed those in control and direct groups in narrative writing. The results of the present study can also provide pedagogical implications in employing corrective feedback in writing classes.