Written Corrective Feedback and EFL Students’ Use of Prepositions, Articles, Punctuation and Capitalization

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of direct and indirect written corrective feedback (WCF) on EFL students’ use of prepositions, articles, punctuation, and capitalization. The importance of focusing on WCF is due to its role in enhancing students’ writing accuracy and making their writing more suitable to their respective discourse communities. Using a quantitative approach, data was collected over a period of two months in a university in the Sultanate of Oman through pre- and post-tests including two stages of treatments. A total of 45 students voluntarily participated in the study: control group (n=15), direct group (n=15), and indirect group (n=15). While the control group (CG) received no feedback and did not receive interventions, the direct group (DG) received feedback on their pre-test, treatment one and treatment two. For DG, errors were underlined and correct forms were given immediately. The indirect group (IG) received feedback on their pre-test, treatment one and treatment two, as well, but their errors were only underlined with no corrections given to encourage students to find the correct forms themselves. The results of this study suggest that direct written corrective feedback (WCF) is more effective than indirect feedback in improving the use of prepositions, articles, punctuation, and capitalization among Omani undergraduate students majoring in literature. The control group did not show any significant improvements, indicating that written corrective feedback is necessary for improving writing skills among EFL students.