The effect of written corrective feedback on Iranian EFL students' writing

First, this study investigated the effect of dynamic written corrective feedback (DWCF) on writing abilities such as accuracy, fluency and complexity. Second, it investigated the effect of DWCF on grammar instruction. The core component of the treatment included having students write a paragraph for 10 minutes each session of treatment. Then the instructor provided students with coded feedback on their daily writing, and encouraged them to apply what they had learned in subsequent writing. After the treatment, the same pre-tests were given to the participants in order to measure the effectiveness of the instructional approaches in each group. In order to answer the research questions, independent t-tests were run and it indicated that the effect of DWCF on writing accuracy and grammar instruction was much greater than its effect on fluency and complexity. The results of this study are considered to be useful in methodological issues related to writing ability, grammar instruction and error correction techniques. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.