Research On The Effects Of Feedback Explicitness On Senior High School English Learners’ Acquisition Of Two Target Structures

Written corrective feedback(WCF)has long been the focus of second language(L2)writing teaching theory and practice.There has been controversy,however,over the effects of different WCF types in terms of their explicitness on the accuracy improvement of students’ L2 writing.The present study adds to the increasing amount of WCF studies by investigating the extent to which feedback explicitness mediates the effects of WCF on the acquisition of two target structures in revision and new pieces of writing.The seven-week study was carried out with 138 Chinese senior three students in high school.Four types of feedback that differed in their degree of explicitness were compared:direct corrective feedback plus metalinguistic explanation(DCF+ME),direct corrective feedback only(DCF),indirect corrective feedback plus metalinguistic explanation(ICF+ME),and indirect corrective feedback only(ICF).The students were randomly assigned to four groups,and each group received one type of feedback.The experimental design comprised a pretest,treatment,an immediate posttest(the revision)and a delayed posttest(the new piece of writing).The uses of two different linguistic structures(i.e.,the indefinite article and the past hypothetical conditional)in terms of their complexity were targeted.After the treatment,the mean accuracy rates of both target structures in the obligatory occasions for the four groups were calculated and served as indicators of L2 writing accuracy.After the experiment,five students were randomly recruited from each group to attend a semi-structured interview.The study found that(1)only the DCF and the ICF+ME groups gained significant revision effects on the accuracy use of the indefinite article,and as for the acquisition of the hypothetical conditional,all treatment groups improved significantly in the revision,and except the ICF+ME group,all other groups achieved significant improvement in the new pieces of writing;(2)as for revision results for the hypothetical conditional,the DCF and the DCF+ME groups significantly outperformed the ICF group,and the DCF group outperformed the ICF+ME group,and no other group differences were found;(3)WCF overall had a greater advantage over the accuracy improvement of the past hypothetical conditional than over the indefinite article;and(4)most of the students reported attending to the past hypothetical conditional,and they experienced difficulty processing the indirect feedback.The results suggest that(1)WCF can have long-lasting effects on facilitating the acquisition of some linguistic structure(i.e.,the past hypothetical conditional);(2)feedback explicitness may not have a significant effect on new pieces of writing;and(3)students tend to pay more attention to the structure(i.e.,the past hypothetical conditional)which is more salient and complex when two different target structures in terms of their saliency and complexity are taken into consideration.The findings of the present study may generate some implications for L2 writing teachers on providing what type of WCF,how to provide WCF and how to provide WCF more effectively.