The Effect Of Written Corrective Feedback On Second Language Grammar Acquisition

Since 1996 when Truscott claims that written corrective feedback(error correction on L2 student writing)can not facilitate the second language grammar acquisition,many empirical studies show the opposite results.Some studies investigate the effects of different types of written corrective feedback,however,there is still no consensus to which type of feedback is more effective.Also,there is no agreement of whether focused or unfocused feedback scope is more effective.Although there are two previous studies investigating the effect of written corrective feedback on grammar acquisition by the method of meta-analysis,none of them involving the studies in China context.Therefore,the present study would synthesize the findings of all published experimental studies investigating the effect of written corrective feedback on second language acquisition from 2008 to 2017 by the method of meta-analysis.After identifying over 100 studies,13 primary studies are included by an exhausted searching process with stringent inclusion criteria.The research questions are:(1)What is the overall effect of written corrective feedback on improving L2 grammatical development?(2)Do different types of corrective feedback have effect on L2 grammar acquisition differently?(3)Does the effect of written corrective feedback on second language acquisition continue over time?(4)Is the effectiveness of written corrective feedback related to focused or unfocused scope?The present paper applies the method of meta-analysis to synthesize the findings of all empirical studies published between 2008 and 2017 to explore the effect of written corrective feedback on L2 grammar acquisition by coding the variables in primary studies and estimating their mean effect sizes and confidence intervals.Results are found as follows:(1)The overall effectiveness of written corrective feedback shows a large effect size on L2 acquisition of grammatical structures in students’ writing;therefore,it can be said that written corrective feedback have positive effect on improving learners’ grammar acquisition.(2)Different types do impact the effect of written feedback on second language acquisition differently;meta-linguistic explanation performs the largest effective sizes,then followed direct feedback and indirect feedback.So learners are more beneficial from meta-linguistic explanation because it can provides more information to facilitate the grammar rules and develop explicit and implicit knowledge.Compared with indirect written corrective feedback,direct corrective feedback provides more input to learners and learners have more opportunities to notice their errors.(3)The effect of written corrective feedback on second language acquisition do sustain over a certain time.In order to maintain the effect of written corrective feedback,it is suggested that learners should review their grammar knowledge on time.(4)Focused feedback has a very larger effect size and significantly outperforms unfocused feedback.In conclusion,the results of the present meta-analysis stand by the side that written corrective feedback is effective on L2 grammatical acquisition,and the findings will have implications for L2 teaching practices.