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Article published In:
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 168:1 (2017) ► pp.91–128

Comprehensive corrective feedback on low and high proficiency writers

Examining attitudes and preferences

| KU Leuven
| KU Leuven
| KU Leuven

This study investigated the effects of comprehensive feedback on learners’ grammatical accuracy during text revision and in new writing tasks in light of proficiency level. It also sought to determine to what extent learners’ proficiency level plays a role in their feedback preferences and attitudes towards the feedback. The participants were 52 low proficiency and 39 high proficiency foreign language university learners, who were randomly assigned to a direct corrective feedback, a metalinguistic feedback with rule reminders, and a self-correction group. All learners wrote four compositions and completed a questionnaire after the treatment to elicit their attitudes towards the feedback and their feedback preferences. Results showed that the treatment effectively enhanced both low and high proficiency learners’ immediate grammatical accuracy and accuracy improvement. Also, a relation between proficiency level and learners’ attitudes towards the feedback as well as an association between proficiency level and learners’ feedback preferences were found.

Keywords: direct corrective feedback, feedback attitudes, feedback preferences, high proficiency learners, metalinguistic feedback, low proficiency learners
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Literature background
    • Direct corrective feedback and metalinguistic feedback
    • The effects of comprehensive corrective feedback
    • Learner factors
  • The current study
  • Method
    • Participants and instructional context
    • Target linguistic features
    • Design and procedures
    • Materials
      • Learner profile sheet
      • Placement test
      • Writing tasks
      • Questionnaire
      • Interview
      • Coding and analysis
  • Results
    • Immediate accuracy
    • Accuracy improvement
    • Learners’ attitudes
      • Quantitative results
      • Qualitative results
    • Learners’ feedback preferences
  • Discussion
    • Grammatical accuracy
    • Attitudinal engagement
    • Feedback preferences
  • Conclusion
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 5 October 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.168.1.04bon
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