The effect of direct and indirect written corrective feedback on grammatical collocations in L2 writing

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated the effective role of direct and indirect written corrective feedback (WCF) in the use of grammar, but little research has investigated the role of WCF in the use of collocations. This study is an attempt to investigate the effect of both direct and indirect WCF on the use of grammatical collocations in L2 writing. The participants of this study included 90 EFL learners in Shahrekord University, randomly assigned into three groups: two experimental groups (i.e., direct and indirect groups) and one control group. To collect data, they were asked to write three distinct essays as pretests, posttests, and delayed posttests, in which they were given key words to make collocations with. Sheen's (2007) techniques were employed to correct the grammatical collocation errors in the direct and indirect groups. The results of ANOVA showed that, first, both experimental groups performed better than the control group. Second, the indirect group outperformed the direct group on the posttests. Third, the effect of indirect WCF was retained in both immediate and delayed posttests.