Investigating the Effects of Two Types of Feedback on EFL Students’ Writing

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to investigate the effect(s) of providing feedback on EFL students' writing performance at Islamic Azad University of Hamedan. To do this, 60 EFL students enrolled in Advanced Writing classes, in which the focus is on developing students' composition skills, were randomly assigned to three groups: a control group, a direct-correction experimental group and an uncoded-feedback experimental group. The study lasted 7 weeks in the course of which the participants had to write paragraphs on the topics assigned on a weekly basis. The papers were all read by the researcher teacher and returned back to the students providing direct corrections on the errors made on participles and resumptives(two problematic areas to Iranian learners of English) to those in the first experimental group, uncoded feedback on such errors to those participants in the second experimental group, and no feedback to those in the control group. The results of a one-way ANOVA indicated that teacher feedback was a significant factor influencing students' writing performance in the two experimental groups. The results also pointed to a significant difference in the performance of the students in uncoded-feedback group over those in the direct-correction feedback group and no-feedback control group. The results of the study support the claim that error feedback in general helps in EFL learners' better writing performance and that uncoded feedback, compared with direct corrections, is providing a more effective strategy to react to students' writings.

Full text

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 ( 2012 ) 2590 – 2595
1877-0428 © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Uzunboylu
doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.05.529
WCES 2012
Investigating the effects of two types of feedback on EFL students'
writing
Darush Ahmadi a
*
, Parviz Maftoon b, Ali Gholami Mehrdad c
a Islamic Azad university, Hamedan Branch, Hamedan, Iran
b Islamic Azad university Science & Research Branch,Tehean , Iran
c Islamic Azad university, Hamedan Branch, Hamedan, Iran
Abstract
The present study is an attempt to investigate the effect(s) of providing feedback on EFL students' writing performance at Islamic
Azad University of Hamedan. To do this, 60 EFL students enrolled in Advanced Writing classes, in which the focus is on
developing students' composition skills, were randomly assigned to three groups: a control group, a direct-correction
experimental group and an uncoded-feedback experimental group. The study lasted 7 weeks in the course of which the
participants had to write paragraphs on the topics assigned on a weekly basis. The papers were all read by the researcher teacher
and returned back to the students providing direct corrections on the errors made on participles and resumptives(two problematic
areas to Iranian learners of English) to those in the first experimental group, uncoded feedback on such errors to those
participants in the second experimental group, and no feedback to those in the control group.The results of a one-way ANOVA
indicated that teacher feedback was a significant factor influencing students’ writing performance in the two experimental
groups. The results also pointed to a significant difference in the performance of the students in uncoded-feedback group over
those in the direct-correction feedback group and no-feedback control group. The results of the study support the claim that error
feedback in general helps in EFL learners' better writing performance and that uncoded feedback, compared with direct
corrections, is providing a more effective strategy to react to students' writings.
Keywords: Uncoded feedback, direct correction feedback, EFL student, writing skill
2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
1. Introduction
Writing has always been regarded an important skill contributing to students' language learning. The importance
is exasperated when you consider that in almost every course there is a writing element of some kind. However, for
many learners of English as second/foreign language, writing is considered the most difficult skill to acquire
because it requires having a certain amount of L2 background knowledge about rhetorical organization, appropriate
language use or specific lexicon with which they want to communicate their ideas (Zachariah, 2005). Therefore,
there have been many attempts aimed at helping students improve their writing skill and increase their motivation
for accomplishing the writing tasks. One of such attempts is providing feedback, and indeed in the recent years
many studies have been conducted to investigate the nature of feedback and the role it might play in L2 teaching and
*
Ali Gholami Mehrdad. Tel.: +98-811-4494000
E-mail address: ali.gholami.mehrdad@gmail.com
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
© 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Uzunboylu

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Darush Ahmadi et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 46 ( 2012 ) 2590 – 2595
learning (e.g. Lyster, 1998; Lyster & Ranta, 1997; Mackey & Philp, 1998;Oliver, 2000; Spada & Lightbown , 1993;
Hussein, 2010 ). However, the research done so far has provided conflicting results, and the
issue is still hotly debated. Although there appears to be some support for the facilitative role corrective feedback
may play in SLA, it seems much work is still needed to fully and decisively adopt the claim, and it is, in fact this last
concern which has motivated the present study.
Thus, the present study is an attempt to experimentally investigate the effect of providing two kinds of
feedback, a code feedback and a non-coded, direct correction feedback on EFL students' composition skill at Islamic
Azad University of Hamedan with the specific aim of finding which feedback type may result in better gains.
2. Feedback studies
Providing feedback to students, whether in the form of written commentary, error correction, teacher-student
tasks, offering the kind of individualized attention that is otherwise rarely possible under normal classroom
conditions (Hyland & Hyland, 2006 ).
However, despite the major part feedback plays in modern writing classrooms and in the lives of all teachers
and learners, only a few studies with some methodological concerns such as absence of a control group have
attempted to directly investigate whether L2 students who receive written corrective feedback on their errors are
able to improve the accuracy of their writing compared with those who do not receive error feedback (Bitchener,
Young & Cameron, 2005 ). Most of these studies (for example, Kepner, 1991; Semke, 1984; Sheppard, 1992)
reported that there was no significant difference in the writing accuracy of the students. Thus, there is clearly a need
for research that compares the effects of receiving corrective feedback and no corrective feedback without such
methodological issues (Truscott, 1996).
An number of other studies have been investigating whether certain types of corrective feedback are more likely
than others to help L2 students improve the accuracy of their writing. Truscott (1996), reviewing some of them
noted that none (Kepner,1991; Semke, 1984; Sheppard, 1992) had found significant differences across any of the
different treatment groups (content comments only; error correction only; a combination of content comments and
error correction; error identification, but no correction) but when the evidence from studies that have considered
other feedback distinctions is examined, it is clear that such a conclusion should at this stage be treated with caution
(Bitchener, Young & Cameron, 2005 ).
Another group of studies have examined the effects of direct and indirect feedback strategies and investigated
the extent to which they facilitate greater accuracy (Ferris, 1995; Lalande, 1982). Direct or explicit feedback occurs
when the teacher identifies an error and provides the correct form, while indirect strategies refer to situations when
the teacher indicates that an error has been made but does not provide a correction, thereby leaving the student to
diagnose and correct it (Ellis, 2008). Additionally, studies examining the effect of indirect feedback strategies have
tended to make a further distinction between those that do or do not use a code. Coded feedback points to the exact
location of an error, and the type of error involved is indicated with a code (for example, PS means an error in the
use or form of the past simple tense). Uncoded feedback refers to instances when the teacher underlines an error,
circles an error, or places an error tally in the margin, but, in each case, leaves the student to diagnose and correct
the error.
Contrary to surveys which reveal that both students and teachers have a preference for direct, explicit feedback
rather than indirect feedback (Ferris & Roberts, 2001), several studies report that the latter leads to either greater or
similar levels of accuracy over time (Lalande, 1982). Considering all this controversy and taking the importance of
feedback studies into account, the present study has been designed to investigate the effects of providing two types
of feedback on EFL students' writing skill focusing on such structures as participle phrases and resumptive pronouns
which are two syntactic elements which pose problems to Iranian learners of English because of absence of such

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structures in Persian (i.e. participle phrases), or occurrence of such structures in Persian as opposed to English (i.e.
resumptive pronouns). The questions that the study is going to address are:
1. Does providing feedback on participles and resumptives have any effects on EFL students' accuracy in using
them?
2. Are there any differences between direct feedback strategies (for example, direct correction of errors) and indirect
feedback strategies (for example uncoded feedback) in this regard?
3.
Methodology
3.1.
Subjects
Participants of the study were 60 EFL students at Islamic Azad University of Hamedan including 13 males and
47 females between 18 to 29 years old, all of whom had already passed two courses (8 credits) in English grammar.
All the subjects had enrolled for the Advanced Writing course, in which the main objective is giving students the
opportunity to go beyond sentence level and get familiarized with the basics of paragraph writing.
3.2.
Sampling
All the 60 subjects making up the sample for the present study had enrolled for the Advanced writing course as apart
of their education. These participants were then randomly assigned in three groups: a control group and two
experimental groups, including 20 students each.
3. 3. Treatment
When the present study began, all the 60 participants were already in the middle of the term, having passed 7
sessions of their formal classes. All had received the same kind of instruction and had already written two
paragraphs each. These paragraphs had all been read by the teacher and all had received feedback on organization
and such concepts as unity and coherence. No feedback had been made on the grammar and content. However, as
the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of providing feedback on such structures as participle
phrases and the resumptive pronouns, in one class session the rules were reviewed for every group. Then the
students in all the three groups were asked to write paragraphs on the topics assigned on a weekly basis.
Furthermore, they were told it was mandatory for them to organize their writings so as to include at least five cases
of adjective clauses or participle phrases. All these paragraphs were collected up, read and returned to the students
while in the first experimental group students' errors on participle phrases and resumptive pronouns were corrected
by the teacher, in the second experimental group such errors were pointed out by drawing red circles around them
thus providing a kind of uncoded feedback: no corrections were made and the students had to revise the paragraphs
and return them back to the teacher again, and in the control group the paragraphs were read and comments were
made at the bottom of the page concerning organization and content, just like the other two groups, without
providing any kind of feedback on errors related to participles or resumptive pronouns , although from time to time
some corrections to other significant errors they had made were provided so that they would not have been totally
disadvantaged by the study. This continued for six weeks.
3.4. Data collection
The data for the present study were obtained from a pre-test and a post-test in the following way. First, to take up
the initial differences among the groups, all the participants were asked to sit for an exam in which they had to write
a narrative paragraph on "The first time I was punished".
The results of the pretest showed no significant differences among the groups (see table 2). Then after six weeks
of treatment all the subjects took part in a second exam in which they were given a n analytical essay of around 300

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words on 'The advantages of co-educational classes', and were asked to (a) change the adjective clauses which were
underlined to participle phrases (7 instances of them), and (b) find the errors incuded in the text and revise them.
These included 6 cases of errors related to participles and 7 cases of resumptive pronouns. The papers were
corrected and the data were collected.
3.5. Data analysis
The data collected through the pre-test and the post-test were then analyzed using SPSS statistical package
version 14 to get a one-way ANNOVA comparing the mean scores of the three groups on the tests. Tables 1,2 and 3
present the results of the ANOVA.
Table 1: The Reported Means
GROUPS
PRETEST
POSTTEST
DIFEERENCE
control
Mean
11.0500
11.9500
.9000
N
20
20
20
Std. Deviation
2.52305
2.37254
1.07115
feedback
Mean
11.1000
13.8000
2.7000
N
20
20
20
Std. Deviation
2.93616
2.06729
1.21828
correction
Mean
11.0500
12.6500
1.6000
N
20
20
20
Std. Deviation
2.98196
2.27746
1.27321
Total
Mean
11.0667
12.8000
1.7333
N
60
60
60
Std. Deviation
2.77316
2.33471
1.38841
Table 2: One- Way ANOVA
Sum of Squares
df
Mean Square
F
Sig.
PRETEST
Between Groups
.033
2
.017
.002
.998
Within Groups
453.700
57
7.960
Total
453.733
59
POSTTEST
Between Groups
34.900
2
17.450
3.469
.038
Within Groups
286.700
57
5.030
Total
321.600
59
DIFFERENCE
Between Groups
32.933
2
16.467
11.616
.000
Within Groups
80.800
57
1.418
Total
113.733
59

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Table 3: Multiple Comparisons
Mean Difference (I-
J)
Std. Error
Sig.
95% Confidence
Interval
Dependent Variable
(I) GROUPS
(J) GROUPS
Lower Bound
Upper Bound
POSTTEST
control
feedback
-1.8500
.70921
.040
-3.6326
-.0674
correction
-.7000
.70921
.617
-2.4826
1.0826
feedback
control
1.8500
.70921
.040
.0674
3.6326
correction
1.1500
.70921
.277
-.6326
2.9326
correction
control
.7000
.70921
.617
-1.0826
2.4826
feedback
-1.1500
.70921
.277
-2.9326
.6326
DIFFERENCE
control
feedback
-1.8000
.37650
.000
-2.7463
-.8537
correction
-.7000
.37650
.187
-1.6463
.2463
feedback
control
1.8000
.37650
.000
.8537
2.7463
correction
1.1000
.37650
.019
.1537
2.0463
correction
control
.7000
.37650
.187
-.2463
1.6463
feedback
-1.1000
.37650
.019
-2.0463
-.1537
* The mean difference is significant at the .05 level.
The comparison of the means for the pre-
However, for the post-test, as the data from tables 2 and 3 indicate, the comparison of the means for the three groups
uncoded feedback, from the mean scores of both the first experimental group, the one with direct-correction
feedback, and the control group. Also the results of the ANOVA point to a higher achievement of the students in the
4.
Discussions
The results of the one-way ANNOVA as presented in the tables above show that both
feedback groups significantly have outperformed the no-feedback control group. The finding is
completely in line with that of Ferris and Roberts (2001), who found that feedback, no matter
direct or indirect, is of benefit to students; however, it contradicts the results obtained by Robb et
al. (1986), who found that there were no significant differences between the group given coded
feedback and the group not given such a feedback, in that in the case of the present study, the
results suggest that the subjects in the uncoded feedback group have outperformed both the
direct-feedback group and the no-feedback control group. This may imply that different kinds of
feedback may have differential effects on students' writing.
5. Conclusion and implications
To further contribute to the research on the value of providing corrective feedback on EFL student's writing, the
present study investigated the extent to which different types of feedback on two categories of errors helped subjects
improve the accuracy of their use in writing. It found that providing feedback no matter direct or indirect enables
students to use participle phrases and avoid using resumptive pronouns with significantly greater accuracy. This
finding adds to a growing body of research that has investigated the effect of different feedback strategies on
accuracy performance. The results of the study are important from another angle as well since they point to the
validity of the observation that indirect feedback is more effective than direct feedback in helping learners improve
the accuracy of their writing.
Consequently, the teachers of EFL writing classes are advised to incorporate both feedback types into their
classrooms, keeping in mind that there is no single feedback strategy which works for all students, in all situations
and with all the variety of errors. A last point to make based on the results of the study is to remind the EFL teachers
of very simple ways they can greatly help their students. In the case of the present study, uncoded feedback did not
waste as much time and energy from the teacher that such feedback strategies like recasts do, but it worked equally
well perhaps because it involved the students in a kind of noticing and revising.

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