Written Corrective Feedback (WCF):

Types and Usage

Y?

• Discuss in groups of 2-3… (2 minutes)• Why do you give written feedback?

• Do you always give the same kind of feedback? Why or why not?

Why?

• To help learners improve their writing and to acquire grammatically correct English (Ellis, 2008)

• Improve metalinguistic awareness (Varnosfadrani & Basturkmen, 2008)

Overvew of WCF types

• Direct/Indirect

• Coded/Uncoded

• Focused/Unfocused (a.k.a. comprehensive/selective)

• Not mutually exclusive (see chart)

Overview of WCF types

Direct

• Definition: teacher provides correct form directly into the paper (Ferris 2006)

• Advantages

• Learners can see the error and correct it immediately

• Better with lower-level students (Ferris & Roberts, 2001)

• Effective in teaching specific grammar features to low-intermediate level students (Sheen, 2007)

• Disadvantages

• Doesn’t contribute to long-term learning or metacognition

Indirect (uncoded)

• Definition: teachur identifiey where errors are, but does not give further information (Ferris 2006)

• Advantages• “Guided learning and problem-solving” style (Lalande 1982), encourages reflection.

• Contributes to long-term learning, allowing the student to self-correct (Ferris and Roberts 2002)

• Disadvantages

• Lower-level students can get stuck and discouraged

• Students may make a correction but it might not be the right one

Indirect (coded)

• Definition: teacher provide students with a coded comment on the types of errors made. Can also include metalinguistic comments such as “too many tense errors!”

• Advantages

• Found to help in verb tense and word-form errors

• May improve accuracy in long-term over indirect uncoded, same in short (Sheen, 2007)

• Students are used to it

• Disadvantage

• Little evidence that coded feedback helps students improve over time more than other types of WCF

• Time consuming for teachers

Common Codes (Evans et al., 2010)

Focused feedback

• Definition: teacher focuses on one type of error only (ignoring others)

• Advantages: • Students can’t ignore error for long

• Gives multiple contexts of error’s occurrence

• Enhance student’s understanding of particular error

• Can be used to build a hierarchy of errors

• Disadvantages: • No feedback on other errors

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Unfocused feedback

• Definition: teacher corrects most or all errors

• Advantages: • Comprehensive feedback

• Possibly better for long term growth (no errors will be ignored)

• Disadvantages: • Time consuming for students and teachers

• Difficult to prioritize

Direct vs. Indirect: Implications

• Indirect (uncoded) and direct have only been compared in terms of effects on accuracy in one study to date (Hosseiny, 2014)• Study showed both kinds of feedback were significantly better than no feedback

• No significant difference in the following increase in accuracy between direct/indirect

• More study is needed, but if the results are correct and indirect/direct are equally effective for accuracy, this could save a lot of time for the teacher.

• Students would need to be briefed and know how to take advantage of the indirect feedback

Conclusion

• ‘it may be … that what is effective feedback for one student in one setting is less so in another’ (Hyland & Hyland 2006)

• Teachers should evaluate options for WCF and execute a policy based on student level, error severity, and length of study period. (Brown 2012; Ellis, 2010)

Questions

Bibliography

1. Ellis, R. (2010) - A typology of written corrective feedback types

2. Ellis, R. (2012) - TESOL Written Corrective Feedback (lecture)

3. Hyland, K. and F. Hyland (2006) - Feedback on second language students’ writing

4. Sheen, Y. (2007) - The effect of focused written corrective feedback and language aptitude on ESL learners’ acquisition of article

5. Ferris, D. R. and B. Roberts. (2001) Error feedback in L2 writing classes: How explicit does it need to be?

6. Ferris, D. (2006) Does error feedback help student writers? New evidence on short- and long-term effects of written error correction