Written Corrective Feedback and Teaching Grammar

This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of both direct focused and recast written corrective feedback (WCF) on grammatical accuracy of EFL learners’ writing. The study also sought to examine whether the effect of direct focused or recast WCF was retained over time. For this, 90 low-intermediate female students were selected through Preliminary English Test (PET) and randomly assigned into three groups: two experimental groups (direct focused and recast) and one control group. The study had a quasi-experimental design with pre-tests, immediate post-tests and delayed post-tests. Group A received direct focused written corrective feedback, group B received recast written corrective feedback and the control group C received no feedback. The statistical analysis indicated that, both experimental groups performed better than the control group and the second experimental group (i.e., the recast group) outperformed the direct focused group. In addition, the lasting effect of recast was more than the lasting effect of direct focused on the grammatical accuracy of EFL learners’ writing.