Measuring linguistic accuracy in an EFL writing class: An electronic communication channel

Abstract

Overemphasis on error correction may lead U students to perform writing tasks in a stressed condition, while an electronic communications channel (i.e., an online discussion board) tends to provide a social space to produce written communicative data through the interaction among peer students in a more natural setting. From a social-cultural perspective, this study examined the effects that corrective feedback could have on the improvement in writing accuracy in the use of prepositions and the subject-verb agreement, the most frequently permitted error categories by L2 writers, over a semester. Written communication data produced by 25 students participating in an online discussion board during the semester were used to examine the effects of feedback on writing accuracy. A two-factor ANOVA with repeated measures and descriptive statistics were performed to examine mean differences in accuracy scores over three treatment time and to analyze the improvement in writing accuracy observed on the discussion board. The results showed that the effect of both direct and indirect corrective feedback on accuracy levels in the use of two linguistic errors was found to be significant in the set of post tests conducted in class. However, such an improvement in writing accuracy was not immediate in written data associated with an electronic communication channel. Specifically, an analysis of the communication data L2 students produced through the interaction with their peers did not support the role of corrective feedback hi students` writing accuracy. Unlike other studies emphasizing on the teaching practices of error correction at the local level, this study argues that the improvement in writing accuracy would be viewed as a natural progress of writing process. (Molqm Nidional Umveedty).