The Effects of Written Corrective Feedback on Korean EFL Learners’ Article Accuracy

One of the most controversial issues in second language (L2) research is whether written corrective feedback (WCF) can benefit L2 learners’ grammatical accuracy in their writing. While exploring various types of WCF, many of previous studies have investigated the rule-governed functions of the indefinite and definite English articles. However, considering that the indefinite articles were shown to be acquired later than the definite articles, there is a need for future research to separate the two functions. Thus, this study explored direct, metalinguistic WCF on both the combined and separated uses of the two English articles. Two groups of Korean learners from an online English composition class participated (N=50) with one group receiving direct, metalinguistic WCF and the other with no such feedback. Both groups completed three picture-based written tasks where their first compositions were used as pretests (after which WCF was provided in the case of the feedback group) and the final ones used as post-tests. The results indicated that although there was no significant effect of direct, metalinguistic WCF, both groups significantly improved in their use of the definite articles over time. Possible explanations are discussed along with limitations of the study and future research directions in this area.