Written Corrective Feedback and the Development of L2 Learner Language : A longitudinal study of lower secondary EFL writing in Norway

Abstract

Aiming to explore teacher written corrective feedback and learner errors qualitatively and longitudinally, the present study investigates two teachers’ WCF to errors in the written production of three lower secondary EFL students in Norway over the course of three school years. The study is divided in four parts: an error analysis of the students’ writing once every six months, a feedback analysis of the teachers’ WCF to errors in the same samples of writing, a tracking of possible improvement in selected types of errorsin subsequent writing (for error categories corrected by the teacher and revised by the student), and a semi-structured interview to include the teachers’ perspective and beliefs about WCF practice, both their own and in general. The study revealed that the participating students did not work enough with revision to benefit from the learning potential of the teachers’ WCF. Additionally, it seems that authentic teacher WCF is neither focused nor comprehensive, but rather somewhere in between.