The Effects of Indirect and Direct Error Feedback on Korean College Students’ Accuracy Improvement in Writing

The Effects of Indirect and Direct Error Feedback on Korean College Students’ Accuracy Improvement in Writing

  This study investigates the effects of indirect and direct error feedback on Korean college students’ accuracy improvement in writing and their responses to the feedback they received. The 32 participants of the study were divided into four groups of different error feedback conditions: indirect feedback, indirect feedback along with metalinguistic feedback, direct feedback, and direct feedback along with metalinguistic feedback. Direct feedback was full, explicit error correction, while indirect feedback was coded error correction in which errors were underlined and marked with code. Metalinguistic feedback was marginal explanations about errors. Analysis of error rates in the students’ first and last essay writing did not show statistically significant difference in the accuracy improvement of the four groups. In other words, indirect error feedback was not more effective than direct feedback. However, the gain score in each group showed that indirect feedback and direct feedback were more effective when they were combined with metalinguistic feedback. In particular, the students’ learning diary clearly indicated that the students valued error feedback on their writing and that follow-up feedback was crucial in providing indirect error feedback.