Effects Of Different Forms Of Written Corrective Feedback On Senior Two Students’ Grammatical Accuracy In English Writing

Written corrective feedback,as an important feedback method in second language teaching,has always been the focus of many researchers in the field of second language writing,who have studied the effect,form and influencing factors of written corrective feedback respectively.This study pays closer attention to the impact of the form of written corrective feedback particularly on its effect.In the teaching of writing,effective written corrective feedback has a certain impact on improving students’writing level and promoting students’language learning.However,when evaluating students’writing,most teachers employ a relatively simple feedback method.By employing two forms of written corrective feedback,this study aims to explore the effect of different forms of written corrective feedback on students’writing,especially their grammatical accuracy.To be more specific,this study aims to answer two questions:（1）Are there any differences in the effect of the two forms of written corrective feedback（“direct feedback+meta-language feedback”and“direct feedback”）on students’grammatical accuracy?（2）For students with different levels of grammatical sensitivity,what are the specific characteristics of the effect of the two forms of written corrective feedback on their grammatical accuracy?The author conducts a quasi-experimental study for a semester,which is in the order of pre-test,immediate post-test,delayed post-test.A total of ninety-six Grade Two students from two parallel classes in a senior high school in Kunming,Yunnan Province participate in the study.In writing instruction,when offering feedback to students’compositions,the teacher employs two forms of written corrective feedback（“direct feedback+meta-language feedback”）in Class 1,and employs a simple form of written corrective feedback（“direct feedback”）in Class 2.At the beginning of the study,a pre-test of students’grammatical accuracy in the two classes is carried out.The results of independent sample T-test of students’grammatical accuracy show that there is no significant difference in terms of students’grammatical accuracy in the two classes.At the same time,grammatical sensitivity test is also conducted.According to the results of grammatical sensitivity test,students in the two classes are respectively divided into three groups of different levels of grammatical sensitivity:high,average and low.Through one-way ANOVA of the scores of the grammatical sensitivity test,it is known that there is no significant difference between the groups with high,average and low grammatical sensitivity in the two classes respectively.The teaching experiment lasts for 18 weeks,and students in the two classes complete three composition tests and six composition tasks.In the 14^thweek,the author conducts an immediate post-test of students’grammatical accuracy in the two classes.Through independent sample T-test,it explores whether there are differences in the effect of the two forms of written corrective feedback on students’grammatical accuracy.Through administrating independent sample T-test another three times between high,average,and low grammatical sensitivity groups from two classes,this author targets to figure out the specific characteristics of the effect of the two forms of written corrective feedback on their grammatical accuracy among students with different levels of grammatical sensitivity.In the 18^thweek,the author carries out a delayed post-test of students’grammatical accuracy in the two classes again,to explore whether the effect of the two forms of written corrective feedback on improving students’grammatical accuracy is sustained or not.Adopting Ferris’（2006）grammatical error classification,the study identifies and clarifies grammatical errors in students’pre-test and post-test compositions.Then,the author employs“direct feedback+meta-language feedback”in Class 1 and“direct feedback”in Class 2 while giving written feedback during the teaching experiment.The study finds that:（1）The employment of“direct feedback+meta-language feedback”and the employment of“direct feedback”both have a positive effect on improving Senior Two students’grammatical accuracy in English writing.However,the effect of employing“direct feedback+meta-language feedback”is better than that of employing“direct feedback”.（2）The effects of the two forms of written corrective feedback on students with different levels of grammatical sensitivity are different.Specifically,for students with high grammatical sensitivity,there is no significant difference in the feedback effect in the two classes;for students with average and low grammatical sensitivity,employing“direct feedback+meta-language feedback”in Class 1 is better than employing“direct feedback”in Class 2Through this research,this paper expects to help teachers understand the impact of written corrective feedback on promoting students’grammatical accuracy in English writing,and choose appropriate written corrective feedback forms based on students’grammatical sensitivity so as to stimulate students to pay attention to the gap between their current writing grammar and target writing grammar and consciously correct grammar errors,thus greatly improving the grammatical accuracy of their writing.