The Role of Written Corrective Feedback in Enhancing Accurate Performance by Primary School Children
摘要
The actual process of foreign language learning during the primary school years, particularly the effects of form-focused instruction on children’s learning of L2 grammar, is still an under-researched area. Specifically, very few studies have been carried out on the effects of written corrective feedback in primary school settings. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether written corrective feedback in the form of direct correction (vs. writing practice alone with self-correction) had an impact on the accurate use of two target features (the third person singular morpheme −s and the third person singular personal pronouns he/she) in new pieces of writing and on the language-related episodes generated during a collaborative writing task. Participants were forty (n = 40) fifth year (10–11 years old) primary school learners divided into a feedback group (10 pairs) and a self-correction group (10 pairs) who completed three dictogloss tasks, at three times of testing (test, post-test and delayed post-test). The results show some advantages for the written-corrective feedback group over the self-correction group but very few significant differences could be reported. Findings will be discussed in light of previous research on written corrective feedback and children’s learning of L2 grammar.