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The Efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback in Improving L2 Written Accuracy: A Meta‐Analysis
Author(s) -
Kang EunYoung,
Han Zhaohong
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the modern language journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.486
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1540-4781
pISSN - 0026-7902
DOI - 10.1111/modl.12189
Subject(s) - corrective feedback , extant taxon , task (project management) , computer science , second language writing , subject (documents) , written language , psychology , meta analysis , empirical research , linguistics , task analysis , cognitive psychology , natural language processing , second language , mathematics education , engineering , medicine , philosophy , systems engineering , epistemology , evolutionary biology , library science , biology
Written corrective feedback has been subject to increasing attention in recent years, in part because of the conceptual controversy surrounding it and in part because of its ubiquitous practice. This study takes a meta‐analytic approach to synthesizing extant empirical research, including 21 primary studies. Guiding the analysis are two questions: Does written corrective feedback help to improve the grammatical accuracy of second language writing? What factors might mitigate its efficacy? Results show that written corrective feedback can lead to greater grammatical accuracy in second language writing, yet its efficacy is mediated by a host of variables, including learners' proficiency, the setting, and the genre of the writing task.