Is feedback pedagogically correct?: Research design issues in studies of feedback on writing

The debate continues between those who believe in giving corrective feedback to students to improve their written accuracy and those who do not. Indeed, the results of the many experimental studies on written corrective feedback carried out over the last 20 years have been so contradictory that second language teachers looking to support their pedagogical choice to correct, or not correct, the grammar of their students’ written production are left in the midst of controversy. In this article, I examine these studies from a different perspective. Rather than interpret the conflicting results as a demonstration of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of corrective feedback on form, I suggest that findings can be attributed to the research design and methodology, as well as to the presence of external variables that were beyond the control and vigilance of the researchers.