The Effects Of Teacher Written Corrective Feedback On Language Accuracy In Chinese Senior High School Students’ English Writing

This thesis examines the effects of teacher written corrective feedback on seniorhigh school students’ English writing in China. The present study addresses thefollowing question: which type of teacher written corrective feedback is moreeffective in improving language accuracy in senior high school students’ Englishwriting?Specifically, it can be subdivided into two questions:1) In the revised writings and in the new writings, can the three types of teacherwritten corrective feedback---direct feedback, underlined indirect feedback and directfeedback with a combination of written meta-linguistic explanations---improvelanguage accuracy in senior high school students’ English writings?2) In the new writings, is there any significant difference among the effects ofthree types of teacher written corrective feedback---direct feedback, underlinedindirect feedback and direct feedback with a combination of written meta-linguisticexplanations---in improving language accuracy in senior high school students’English writing? If so, what areas do these differences lie in?90senior high school students of Grade Two participated present experiment.They were divided into three groups:(1) the group of direct feedback (N=30),(2) thegroup of underlined indirect feedback (N=30) and (3) the group of direct feedbackwith a combination of written meta-linguistic explanations (N=30). The experimentlasted for more than two months and the students were required to complete fivepieces of new writing and four pieces of revised writing. The result shows that:(1) In the revised writings and in the new writings, the three types of teacherwritten corrective feedback can significantly improve the language accuracy in senior high school students’ English writings.(2) In the new writings, statistically significant difference is discovered amongthe three groups. It is notable that the significant difference mainly occurs between thegroup of direct feedback and the group of underlined indirect feedback, between thegroup of underlined indirect feedback and the group of direct feedback with acombination of written meta-linguistic explanations. However, there is no significantdifference between the group of direct feedback and the group of direct feedback witha combination of written meta-linguistic explanations.The findings indicate that the two types of teacher written corrective feedback,that is, the direct feedback and the direct feedback with a combination of writtenmeta-linguistic explanations, are more effective than the underlined indirect feedbackin improving language accuracy in senior high school students’ writings. Moreover,the direct feedback and the direct feedback with a combination of writtenmeta-linguistic explanations are equally effective to enhance language accuracy ofsenior high school students’ English writings. These findings can provide animplication for the instruction of English writing and the effective types of teacherwritten corrective feedback in senior high school.