THE EFFECT OF WRITTEN AND ORAL CORRECTIVE FEEDBACK ON STUDENTS

WRITING PERFORMANCE
I.

The reason why conducting this research

a. A brief explanation about :
One major issue that concerns about writing is how to engage and
motivate students to write in a good piece of writing. The students have to learn
the process of writing and how to construct ideas on a written text. It seems
obvious that writing performance need to be highly improved in order to ensure
that students have easily readable writing. Singh (2010:7) pointed out that to write
English language correctly, the fundamental of English grammar should be
mastered because it is important to know the underlying of the correct formation
of sentences and the relation of words to one another. In this way, corrective
feedback is essential to be applied in teaching writing.
Corrective feedback has been discussed by some experts in language
teaching. Ferris and Hedgcock (2005:185) explained about teachers' awareness to
respond the student writing and the potential benefits of their commentary is
complex and it is more challenging to do. However, according to Truscott as cited
in Ferris (2003:49), it is stated that there is no significant information related to
students purposes and their motivation for attending to error feedback and the
type of writing is being considered to what they are expected to do after receiving
feedback.
Regarding measuring writing, corrective feedback has been an attention as
one way of teaching writing in foreign language. The types of corrective feedback
have been proposed in a great number of studies and have given positive and
negative effects of corrective feedback on writing aspect. So, this research deals
with the investigation of how effective written and oral corrective feedback can
give some beneficial improvement on students writing performance by applying
metalinguistic clue on their learning.
b. Research Question
1. What effect do written and oral corrective feedback have on students writing
performance to write a composition using metalinguistic clue?
2. Which is more effective between written and oral corrective feedback in
improving students writing performance?
c. Objective of the Research
In relation with the research questions, the aims of the research are:
1. To investigate the effectiveness of written and oral corrective feedback on
student writing performance.
2. To investigate which is more effective between written and oral corrective
feedback on student writing performance.

d. Significance of the Research

II.

For teacher, this paper can give information about how to correct students
writing by using written and oral corrective feedback and also give contribution to
theoretical framework to research in corrective feedback
e. Scope of the Research
This study focused in investigating written and oral corrective feedback on
student writing performance at Writing III Class of Tadulako University. This
corrective feedback will use metalinguistic clue on students learning in writing a
composition. The written and oral corrective feedback include the language use
(grammatical error mainly, verb tenses, parts of speech, and articles), and
organization in writing draft composition. Draft composition is about writing an
expository essay with three drafts of writing and including the final version.
Literature Review
a. Previous Study
Many studies have shown an important role of corrective feedback in
writing and how to improve student writing performance through correction
feedback. For instance, Samad and Farid (2012:237) found that the process of
corrective feedback should be considered with the aim of writing. In other words,
if the purpose of writing is related to structural rules, the focus is to convey more
on grammar and if the purpose is about the communicative purpose, the focus
should deal with errors of misunderstanding the meaning. Next, Moinzadeh and
Rassaei (2011) investigated the effects of three types of corrective feedback,
namely recasts, meta-linguistic feedback, and clarification feedback, on the
acquisition of English Wh-question forms by Iranian EFL learners. The study
found that only recasts and meta-linguistic feedback had a significant effect on
learners' performance on the post-test. Therefore, the application of corrective
feedback helps learner to become aware of their writing and engage them to learn
how to write correctly.
Furthermore, Ellis (2009) highlight five main controversies concerning
corrective feedback (CF), which she reformulated it in questions about does CF
contribute to L2 acquisition?, Which errors are to be corrected?, Who should
correct? (The teacher or the learner him/herself/), which type of CF is the most
effective?, and when is better to do CF? This paper discuss the first three
questions in which it covers the role of CF and the techniques or strategies used
for CF. The result showed that the view and value attributed to CF vary according
to the method or approach being used by the teacher or their beliefs about
correction in the language pedagogy. However, within the post-method era,
according to Ellis (2009), language teaching methodologists do not prescribe
overtly CF, but while some acknowledge the cognitive contribution it can make,
other scholars warn instructors about the affective damage it can cause.
b. Theoretical Framework
Corrective feedback is defined by Lightbown and Spada (1999:171) as
"any indication to the learners that their use of the target language is incorrect"
can be considered as a kind of modified input, and may lead to modified output on
the part of the learner. Ferris and Hedgcock (2005:185) said that teachers'
awareness to respond the student writing and the potential benefits of their
commentary is complex and it is more challenging to do.

III.

Methodology
a. Research Design
The students of writing III at Tadulako University will participate in this
study. This study is a quantitative research with an experimental design. In this
study there is no control group because it is aimed to investigate the improvement
of students writing performance by comparing two kinds of corrective feedback.
In this case, students are divided into two treatment groups receiving corrective
feedback including written corrective feedback with metalinguistic clue and oral
corrective feedback with metalinguistic clue. The number of students in each
group is six.
b. Treatment
Students are required to write six essays of 300 words on a given topic.
The first and the last essays are in the form of pre-test and post-test. Another four
essays are written during the treatment about writing an expository essay with
three drafts of writing and including the final version. As for the first group,
students are given written corrective feedback with metalinguistic clue for each
error on the margin besides each line. The second group receives oral corrective
feedback of metalinguistic clues on the errors around 15 minutes.
c. Instruments
1. Writing Tasks
Reconstruction tasks were chosen because they enable the researcher to create
contexts for the use of the target structure. The tasks is about writing
expository essay. The teacher read the sample of an expository essay and the
students were allowed to take notes. Then, the students work reconstruct the
story from their notes individually.
2. Tests
The topic for the pre-test and post-test is writing an essay about 350 words
according to the topic given. The following topic is suggested for the pre-test
and the post-test, respectively: How Can You Relieve College Stress?
Explains ways for college students to reduce the amount of stress they feel
about school.
d. Analysis of findings
Data is collected from two essay writing tests. The first one is in the form of pretest and the second one is in the form of post-test essay. Students pre-test is
compared to their post-test essay in each individual group to investigate whether
there is any change in each group or not. After that, by comparing the results of
each individual group with other groups, it will indicate which of these treatments
is more effective.
e. Procedures in giving corrective feedback
The students completed texts were collected in accordance with the corrective
feedback treatment for each group. The corrected compositions were given back
to the students as soon after the original lesson as possible and time allocated for
them to examine the corrections. They were not asked to write revised versions of
their texts.
Sample of Expository Essay

The purpose of an expository essay is to present important information about a specific subject.
In the following example, writer is Kellyann Bandusky that explains her career ambitions.
Kellyann Bandusky
Mrs. Cavallo
English I
January 30, 2006
A Career to Make Life Worth Living
Many teenagers spend a lot of time contemplating what they want to do when they graduate from
high school. I am fortunate in that I already know; I decided to become a veterinarian when I was
two or three years old. Just like humans, animals need people to treat them with the respect and
dignity they deserve, and I want to be one of those people. Because of this, I am doing all I can at
Reavis to lay the groundwork for my success in college. Then, once I am in college, I will study
and learn about all species of animals. Finally, I will find happiness in my career as a
veterinarian because when animals need my assistance, I know that I will be able to help them.
First, as a freshman at Reavis High School, I keep in mind my lifelong dream of
becoming a veterinarian. I have been taking my education here very seriously, because I know
that a person needs to be not only knowledgeable, but also extremely disciplined in order to
become a veterinarian. Because of this, I work hard to earn good grades, I take pride in my work,
and I have learned to manage my time properly. These skills will be particularly valuable when I
enter college.
After leaving Reavis, I must attend college because it is definitely a requirement for
becoming a veterinarian. In fact, a bachelors degree is necessary in order to even enter a
veterinarian program. One must also possess excellent communication, leadership, public
speaking, and organizational skills. I have put a lot of thought and consideration into college, and
I have decided that I would like to go to the University of Illinois. It is a wonderful school, and
they even have a graduate program designed for students who want to become veterinarians.
Once I have completed a veterinarian program, I will be able to pursue my dream career.
This career provides numerous benefits, the first of which is salary. The average veterinarian
salary is $60,000 a year, a salary that would definitely allow me to live a comfortable life.
Secondly, it is a rewarding job. This job would provide me with the satisfaction of knowing that
I am helping or saving an animals life. Finally, becoming a veterinarian would assure me a
lifetime of happiness. I know I would love going to my job every day, because I would be
working with what I love most: animals.
In summary, when I graduate from Reavis, I plan to go to college to become a
veterinarian. I love animals and I want to do anything that I can to help them. I know I am only a
freshman, but I also know that I am growing up quickly. As Ferris Bueller quotes, Life moves
pretty fast. If you dont stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it!

REFERENCE

Ferris, D.R & Hedgcock, J.S. 2005. Teaching ESL Composition: Purpose, Process, and Practice
(2nd Edition). Mahwah, NJ:Erlbaum
Ellis, R. 2009. Corrective Feedback and Teacher Development. L2 Journal, 1, 3-18.
Lightbown, P.M. & Spada. N. 1999. How Languages are Learned. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press.
Moinzadeh. A & Rassaei, E. 2011. Investigating the Effects of Three Types of Corrective
Feedback on the Acquistion of English WH-question Forms by Iranian EFL Learners.
English Language teaching Vol. 4 No.2 www.ccsenet.org/elt
Samad, A.A & Farid, S. 2012. Effects of Different kind of Direct Feedback on Students
Writing. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 66(7), 232-239.
Singh, R.K. 2010. How to Write Correct English. Abhishek Publication. Page 7