THE IMPACT OF CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS’ WRITING COMPLEXITY, ACCURACY, AND FLUENCY

Background/Purpose: Recently, corrective feedback (CF) has gained considerable importance in language teaching research. Up until now, there has been less attention to the use of CF in an Iranian context. This current study aims at investigating the impact of corrective feedback on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ Complexity (C), Accuracy (A), and Fluency (F) in their writing production. Methodology: After administering an Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT), the researcher selected 30 Iranian intermediate learners at a private English language institute in Isfahan, Iran and divided them into two groups of 15 randomly. An Oxford placement test was run to make sure that the two groups were homogenous. A series of writing tasks were developed to examine the participants’ performance in writing. The experimental group attended the class in which CF was performed where they received feedback from the teachers and also their partners in the class (by crossing out and explaining) during the writing tasks on how to use the correct forms of the words and tenses. The control group attended the class in which CF was performed briefly. At the end of the study, all subjects participated in paragraph writing. To compare the group means for the study, a test analysis was performed. The difference between the experimental and the control group was considered to be important. Findings: The results of Independent and samples t tests revealed that the participants in the experimental group outperformed the ones in the control group in writing production. The results clearly indicated that the participants who received CF did better than those who did not. Therefore, the findings generally revealed that CF had a significant effect on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Contributions: This study has multiple benefits for language learners and teachers. Utilizing CF in writing classes can be a practical way to improve students’ proficiency and writing skill. In addition, this study draws attention to the Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency (CAF) of written production. Keywords: Corrective feedback, complexity, accuracy, fluency, Iranian Intermediate EFL learners. Cite as: Ghahderijani, B. H. (2021). The impact of corrective feedback on Iranian EFL learners’ writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(2), 250-272. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss2pp250-272

Effects of manipulating writing task complexity on learners’ performance in completing vocabulary and syntactic tasks

The present study investigated the potential of writing in English as a foreign language (EFL) for language learning by manipulating cognitive task complexity based on related models and hypotheses. English essays written by 59 Chinese postgraduate EFL students from different subject areas were analysed with reference to writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF). Results showed that task complexity had no significant effect on EFL learners’ lexical complexity but had an influence on their syntactic variation in EFL writing. Findings suggest that manipulating writing task complexity could be a feasible means to promoting and enhancing EFL learners’ language learning. Such findings might broaden our understanding of the relationship between EFL writing and language learning in an EFL learning context. The interplay of EFL writing and EFL learning is also pedagogically relevant to those who are interested in appropriately sequencing tasks for more effective language teaching.

The Comparative Effect of Dynamic and Negotiated Assessment on EFL learners’ Writing Complexity and Fluency

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the comparative effect of dynamic and negotiated assessment on EFL learners’ writing complexity and fluency. To this end, 72 female intermediate EFL participants, selected from a larger group of 103 learners based on their performances on a piloted PET, in Tak language institute in Dezfoul, Iran participated in the present study and received either dynamic assessment, negotiated assessment, or traditional instruction during a term. Both of the experiments were process-oriented; however, in the dynamic assessment, the negotiation was done through teacher’s provision of feedback wherein the negotiated assessment group peer-negotiation was encouraged. The participants’ writing complexity and fluency were measured both before and after the instruction through essay writing pre-treatment test and posttest in accordance with Larsen-Freeman’s (2006) T-Unit protocol. A Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was run on the posttest scores to test the null hypotheses of the study, the results of which indicated that while dynamic assessment was significantly effective in improving writing complexity (p = 0.007 < 0.05), negotiated assessment yielded significantly better results in boosting writing fluency compared to the results obtained from both control (p = 0.000 < 0.05) and dynamic assessment groups (p = 0.042 < 0.05). Nevertheless, dynamic assessment did not show significantly better results in comparison to negotiated assessment in improving writing complexity (p = 0.084 > 0.05). Learners, teachers, and syllabus designers who are engaged in the process of language pedagogy may use these results. Depending on the focus of their learning, i.e., fluency or complexity, they may choose the optimal choice between these two types of assessment.

Virtual Reality Simulations in Science Education

This study examines the role of virtual reality (VR) in the promotion of writing with greater complexity and lexical density. Using a combination of neuroimaging and traditional measures, the author characterizes differences in writing complexity and lexical density scores across four different pedagogical modalities: VR alone, VR followed by a textbook reading, textbook reading followed by VR, and textbook reading alone. Middle school students recruited from a rural middle school in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States responded to two prompts related to science content found in VR environments and a textbook. The authors hypothesized that exposure to a virtual environment prior to responding to the writing prompts would enhance both argumentative and summative writing products, when compared to participants who only had access to the textbook experiences. Participants who were exposed to the VR environment then had access to a textbook demonstrated significantly greater writing complexity and lexical density scores than those who had VR alone, or access to the text alone.

The role of task repetition with direct written corrective feedback in L2 writing complexity, accuracy and fluency

This study explored whether the effects of task repetition in drawing learners’ attention to linguistic form could be reinforced through the provision of two types of unfocused direct written corrective feedback. Fifty-seven learners formed three conditions: (1) task repetition with no feedback (TR, control), (2) task repetition with error correction (TR+EC), and (3) task repetition with reformulation (TR+R). All groups repeated an identical writing narrative task but only the experimental groups received feedback after their initial task performance. All participants were then asked to complete a new task of the same type followed by a new task of a different type. Performance was gauged by multiple measures of complexity, accuracy and fluency. Results revealed the persistent superiority of the TR+EC condition on all measures of accuracy while the TR+R condition led to immediate written complexity improvement regarding subordination. Furthermore, both the TR+R and TR conditions resulted in delayed fluency gains.