The Effect of Written Corrective Feedback on Cohesion In Japanese as a Foreign Language Learners' Writing
Abstract
Cohesion in second/foreign language writing has been studied from a theoretical standpoint since the late 1970s; however, little research has been conducted to investigate how cohesion can be improved. There is research that indicates that teacher feedback contributes to the improvement of cohesion in EFL leaners’ writing (Lee, 2002; Tangkiengsirisin, 2010); however, there is little empirical research examining the effect of teacher feedback on cohesive devices in learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL)’s writing, which calls for further research to delve into this issue. The present study investigated whether or not written corrective feedback (WCF) increases the number of cohesive devices in lower-level JFL learners’ writing. The subjects received one of the following WCF: direct feedback that explicitly corrects errors, indirect feedback that provides the location of errors with underlines and error codes, or no feedback on cohesive devices. They wrote four short expository essays (250 to 300 letters) about a different topic and revised them as their homework. The long-term effect was investigated by comparing a pre-test writing and a post-test writing 2, which was assigned after the treatment. In addition, the pre-test writing and a post-test writing 1, which was assigned a month later, were compared to investigate whether there were short-term effects. Furthermore, the extent to which the number of each type of cohesive device (reference, substitution, ellipsis, or conjunction) increased was examined. The results indicated that WCF did not have a statistically significant effect on the use of cohesive devices for either the short-term effect or the long-term effect; nevertheless, significant increases for referential and conjunctive cohesive devices within groups were found. In addition, it was found that more than 90% of the subjects in the direct WCF group and more than 60% in the coded group succeeded in revising their first drafts based on WCF, indicating that WCF was effective for them into editing their errors on cohesive devices.
Degree
M.A.
Advisors
Wei, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Linguistics|Language
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