The Efficacy Of Focused Written Corrective Feedback On Cognitive Load In English Writing Performance

Writing,an essential part in college English teaching,is multifaceted,which requires a wide range of knowledge and skills in various areas at different levels.However,for most of the EFL learners in China,it is the most challenging part with the fact that EFL learners have to take into consideration task achievement,coherence and cohesion,lexical resource as well as grammatical range and accuracy.Over the past decades,numerous English educators have investigated the difficulties in English writing.It is widely believed that difficulties in English writing lie in limited and low-level vocabulary,simple sentences,poverty of content etc.As a necessary part in process approach,teacher-written feedback plays a significant role in the development of learners' writing performance.Cognitive load theory(CLT)assumes that people's cognitive resources are limited.Cognitive overload will be generated when the learners' cognitive resources are exceeded by what the task demands,thus affecting learning efficiency.The current study applies cognitive load theory into English writing and firstly aims to measure the main cognitive load in English writing.Based on the main cognitive load,the efficacy of focused written corrective feedback(henceforth WCF)is examined.This study administers subjective rating scale(Cooper-Harper rating scale)and task-and-performance-base technique(writing pre-test)to examine and analyze the main cognitive load in English writing with 81 freshmen enrolled in 2016 from two parallel classes from Taiyuan Institute of Technology as the subjects over the course of a 16-week semester.According to IELTS criteria,pre-test writings are scored and the result indicates that there is no significant difference between these two classes.The participants are divided into experimental class and control class.Both of two classes are required to write a composition per week and focused on the main cognitive load,the former is provided with focused WCF,whereas the latter receives unfocused WCF.The goal of the present study is to explore whether focused WCF has a significant effect on promoting learners' English writing performance on the main cognitive load.To achieve this goal,three research questions are proposed:1.What is the main cognitive load in EFL learners' English writing?2.Will focused WCF on the main cognitive load promote EFL learners' English writing performance significantly?3.What are students' attitudes toward focused WCF ?The findings indicate that :(1)Lexical resource constitutes EFL learners' main cognitive load in English writing and more cognitive efforts are invested into lexical resource.(2)Independent samples t-tests on post-test reveal that focused WCF on lexical resource has a significant impact on learners' scores of lexical resource and promote lexical sophistication and lexical accuracy significantly.However,it doesn't have a significant influence on lexical variation.Experimental class significantly outperforms control class in the use of advanced words with more than or equal to three syllables and the former shows a better grasp of spelling,deviation and collocation.The results indicate that focused WCF on lexical resource is effective in facilitating students' lexical development in English writing.(3)Most of students hold a positive view on focused WCF and advise to integrate peer feedback,teacher-student conferences and automatic systems to facilitate their English writing performance.Therefore,to some extent,this study confirms the efficacy of focused WCF on lexical development.