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The Effects Of Indirect Focused And Unfocused Written Corrective Feedback On The Accurate Use Of Articles In Non-English Majors’ Compositions

Posted on:2016-12-15Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:C L JinFull Text:PDF
GTID:2295330461994021Subject:Curriculum and pedagogy
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The thesis mainly studies the effects of indirect focused and unfocused written corrective feedback (WCF) on the accurate use of articles in non-English majors’compositions. Focused and unfocused WCF is a hot topic in recent research. What’s more, there is a lack of related studies at home. So it is necessary to do this research. According to the previous research, written meta-linguistic explanation can be combined with different types of WCF and it works quite well. Therefore, besides indirect focused and unfocused WCF, the study also includes other types of WCF, indirect focused WCF with written meta-linguistic explanation and indirect unfocused WCF with written meta-linguistic explanation, in order to know if written meta-linguistic explanation can enhance the effect of indirect focused or unfocused WCF. Furthermore, it also discusses the effects of the four types of WCF on high and low score students.Five intact classes in a university in Changsha were chosen at random for the experiment. Four are treatment groups and one is the control group. Each group has 25 students. The experiment has been carried out to research on three questions:(1) What is the effect of indirect focused WCF on the use of articles in non-English majors’ compositions? (2) What is the effect of indirect unfocused WCF on the use of articles in non-English majors’compositions? (3) For high and low score students, which type of WCF is the most appropriate?Findings revealed that:(1) Students who received WCF did better in article use both in the immediate post-test and in the delayed post-test than students in the control group. Indirect focused WCF and indirect focused WCF with written meta-linguistic explanation can effectively improve the use of articles. What’s more, the latter greatly precedes the former. (2) Indirect unfocused WCF and indirect unfocused WCF with written meta-linguistic explanation can also effectively enhance the use of articles. Moreover, the latter greatly precedes the former. (3) For high score students, the two types of indirect unfocused WCF are more effective and indirect unfocused WCF with written meta-linguistic explanation yielded a better result; for low score students, the two types of indirect focused WCF are more helpful. Since the four types of WCF are facilitative in increasing the accuracy of article use in compositions and they are differently effective for different students, teachers may consider when and how to use them.
Keywords/Search Tags:indirect focused WCF, indirect unfocused WCF, written meta-linguistic explanation, use of articles, non-English majors
PDF Full Text Request
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