The effects of feedback explicitness and type of target structure on accuracy in revision and new pieces of writing

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the interactional effect of written corrective feedback (WCF) explicitness and type of target structure on the accuracy of students’ revision and new pieces of writing. A total of 88 Japanese university students of English were assigned to four groups, each receiving either direct or indirect corrective feedback that differed in its degree of feedback explicitness: Direct corrective feedback with metalinguistic explanation (DCF\xa0+\xa0ME), direct corrective feedback only (DCF), indirect corrective feedback with metalinguistic explanation (ICF\xa0+\xa0ME), and indirect corrective feedback only (ICF). The target structures were the English indefinite article and the past perfect tense. While both types of WCF enabled the learners to improve the accuracy of both target structures in revision, a significant improvement from the first writing to the new writing was only found for the past perfect. A significant effect was partially found of WCF explicitness on learner revision for the past perfect, but not on new pieces of writing regardless of the type of target structures.