Effects of Different Kind of Direct Feedback on Students' Writing

Error feedbacks can help students in their writings and one of these questions is that whether teachers should use or not use error correction and feedbacks in writing classes. This study analyzed the holistic use of verbs considered as errors in the writings of upper intermediate international students studying in University Teknologi Malaysia. This study is a quantitative research with experimental design. Three different treatment groups received three different kinds of direct feedback: Direct feedback with written meta-linguistic explanation, direct feedback with oral meta-linguistic explanation, and direct feedback only. T-test was carried out to identify the effectiveness of each type of direct feedback on errors that had helped the more advanced students improve their writings. The results show that all types of direct feedback were effective but different types of feedback can be ranked in terms of importance. (C) 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the LSP 2012 Committee, Language Academy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.