Effects of Dynamic Corrective Feedback on ESL Writing Accuracy

TLDR

Written corrective feedback can improve ESL writing accuracy, yet teachers remain uncertain about effective practical steps and whether conventional pedagogy truly enhances linguistic accuracy. The study proposes a new instructional strategy to enhance ESL students' writing accuracy. The authors implemented a dynamic written corrective feedback approach and compared its efficacy against a conventional process-based instruction in a controlled study. Results showed that dynamic WCF did not affect rhetorical competence, fluency, or complexity, but significantly improved writing accuracy.

Abstract

Though recent research has shown that written corrective feedback (WCF) may improve aspects of writing accuracy in some English as a second language (ESL) contexts, many teachers continue to be confused about the practical steps they should utilize to help their students improve their writing. Moreover, some have raised concerns as to whether commonly used approaches to ESL writing pedagogy and grammar instruction are effective in helping students improve their linguistic accuracy. This article describes an instructional strategy we developed for improving students' accuracy based on insights gleaned from practice, research, and theory. We refer to this instructional methodology as dynamic WCF. The article also discusses a test of the methodology's efficacy that compared the performance of two groups of students, one using a conventional process approach to writing instruction and the other using the dynamic WCF approach. Test results demonstrated that although rhetorical competence, writing fluency, and writing complexity were largely unaffected by the dynamic WCF pedagogy, significant improvement was observed for writing accuracy.