Abstract

The feedback of ESL teachers in students’ writing has been claimed to be abstract, vague, and variable from teacher to teacher. Therefore, this research investigates the effect of four corrective feedback methods on the correction of grammar error in English writing: underline method, codes method, clues methods, and self-correction method. In this experimental study, the subjects are 36 science freshmen university students. To examine how explicit error feedback should be and the differences between different feedback methods in improving accuracy of compositions, the researcher introduced three dimensions as measurements: error ratio, identification ratio, and correction ratio. The results show that all four feedback methods help to identify and correct errors in students’ composition, of which clues methods is the most effective one. However, these four feedback methods have slight influence on improving the accuracy of students’ composition. And there is no evidence showing which feedback method is most effective in improving the accuracy of student composition. The researcher attributes this result to the scale of this study and the fossilization of subjects’ English proficiency. Lastly, the researcher offers some advice for practical use.

Keywords: written corrective feedback, explicitness of feedback, grammar correction, second language writing

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

2. Theoretical basis-2

2.1 The definition of corrective feedback-2

2.2-The problems that Chinese ESL teachers meet towards corrective feedback-2

2.3-The discussions on the effectiveness of corrective feedback-2

2.4-The explicitness of feedback-3

2.4.1 Researches on the explicitness of feedback-3

2.4.2 The definition of the explicitness of feedback-4

2.4.3 The measurement of the effects of feedback-4

3. Method-5

3.1 Subjects-5

3.2-Design and procedures-5

3.3-Statistical analysis-7

4. Results-8

4.1 The analysis of the initial composition-8

4.2 The analysis on efficacy of four feedback methods-8

4.3 The analysis on whether four feedback methods help to accuracy in students composition-10

5. Conclusion and limitations-12

6. Implications for practice-14

References-15