Effects Of Different Types Of Written Corrective Feedback On Students' Writing

English writing teaching has always been a difficult point in the process of English teaching. Things become even harder in case of vocational and technical college students (VTCS) with weak English foundation. Currently, the biggest problem is that their writing is obsessed with errors in various types. Corrective feedback (CF) is correction of errors for the purpose of improving students'ability to write accurately. Although in recent years, the issue of corrective feedback has attracted enormous interest from researchers and teachers alike, there are still no clear answers to its effectiveness. Moreover, experimental study on the effect of corrective feedback is especially in short in Chinese context. As a response in this respect, the current study aims at investigagting the effects of corrective feedback, particularly the different effects of different corrective feedback types on students' writing on the whole and specific error types.Based on Error analysis, Contrastive analysis and Noticing hypothesis, the present study is attempted to find answers to the following questions:1) Does different types of teachers'CF help L2 writers to improve their accuracy in the short run? If yes, which type of CF is the most effective?2) Does different types of teachers'CF affect quality of new pieces of writing? If yes. which type of CF is the most effective?3) What are students'attitudes and preference toward different types of CF?The experimental study on writing tasks was carried out, which lasted three weeks. 82 students, selected from four intact classes of non-English major freshmen at the lower intermediate proficiency level, particapted in the study. The participants were divided into four groups, who completed two writing tasks plus one revision. The writing performance of three experimental groups and one control group are investigated under four different feedback conditions:(1)direct feedback; (2) coded feedback; (3) uncoded feedback; (4) no feedback.The results indicate that teachers'corrective feedback can not only improve students' writing accuracy in the short term, but also for the long run. However, the effects of corrective feedback are different according to different error types.Among the three corrective feedback types, coded feedback has more delayed effects than direct feedback and uncoded feedback. However, direct feedback is more effective in short term than in long term. Moreover, the results of questionnaire also suggets that students show preferrence to coded feedback. The results of the study confirm the importance of corrective feedback in language teaching and thus shed some lights on teachers'response to students'writing. The limitations of the present study are discussed and some suggestions for future research are also made.