Efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback as a Tool to Reduce Learners' Errors on L2 Writing

Over the last few decades, considerable research has been done to investigate the role of written corrective feedback in SLA classrooms. However, early researches suffered from major design flaws and consequently failed to draw any definite conclusions. In order to move this line of research it is important to analyze the issue in EFL/ESL settings. This research study, by applying quantitative research design, seeks to investigate the effectiveness of WCF on 30 low-intermediate EFL learners and their error reduction rate on pre, post and delayed posttest. Two different types of WCF (direct and indirect metalinguistic) were provided on two error categories, i. e. articles and past tense. Statistical analysis indicated that both treatment groups performed significantly better than control group on subsequent drafts. Thus, the present study by proving the efficacy of WCF at least on above mentioned error categories strengthens the case in favor of WCF in L2 classrooms.