Effects of Dynamic Corrective Feedback on ESL Writing Accuracy

Keywords

corrective feedback, English as a second language, writing pedagogy

Abstract

Though recent research has shown that written corrective feedback (WCF) may improve aspects of writing accuracy in some English as a second language (ESL) contexts, many teachers continue to be confused about the practical steps they should utilize to help their students improve their writing. Moreover, some have raised concerns as to whether commonly used approaches to ESL writing pedagogy and grammar instruction are effective in helping students improve their linguistic accuracy. This article describes an instructional strategy we developed for improving students’ accuracy based on insights gleaned from practice, research, and theory. We refer to this instructional methodology as dynamic WCF. The article also discusses a test of the methodology’s efficacy that compared the performance of two groups of students, one using a conventional process approach to writing instruction and the other using the dynamic WCF approach. Test results demonstrated that although rhetorical competence, writing fluency, and writing complexity were largely unaffected by the dynamic WCF pedagogy, significant improvement was observed for writing accuracy. doi: 10.5054/tq.2010.213781

Original Publication Citation

Hartshorn, K. J., Evans, N. W., Merrill, P. F., Sudweeks, R. R., Strong-Krause, D., Anderson, N. J. (2010). “Effects of dynamic corrective feedback on ESL writing accuracy.” TESOL Quarterly, 44, 84–108.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2010-3

Permanent URL

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/8678

Publisher

Tesol Quarterly

Language

English

College

Humanities

Department

Linguistics

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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