Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback.
Jose Tena Villada
A published report, March 2018 (Kurzer), states that multi-lingual learners become more efficient self-editors and develop more accuracy at writing timed paragraphs after taking classes that supplement grammatical instruction using Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback (DWCF). Significant results were obtained across all types of errors.
Through the years, many in the profession affirm that research has shown that explicit grammatical instruction does not help. DWCF is an individualized feedback method in which students write on weekly or daily basis. The teacher then collects and returns the papers highlighting the mistakes. Students then, self-edit their texts and return them to the teacher for additional feedback. This process is repeated until the writing is error free or has reached the level of accuracy desired and/or required. As students dwell on their writing and their mistakes, they keep record of the errors and their correction.
The argument behind this type of feedback is that in most cases, grammar is taught in a decontextualized manner; this method corrects this problem. The other argument is the well-known hypothesis that states that learners need comprehensible input just above their current level and this method, again, provides just that kind of input. The procedural acquisition theory states that learners first need declarative knowledge, i.e. to become aware of what they actually know. In order to leap to the procedural knowledge, learners need methodological and extensive practice, which ultimately results in the internalization of the target structures. Hence, corrective feedback must be done in writing that is as authentic as possible, i.e. pieces written by the students themselves. DWCF can be used to address all major error categories and thus meet learner needs.
Indirect feedback, where the teacher marks the mistake but lets the learner determine the correction, seems to work better than direct feedback as it allows the development of better self-editing skills. Research showed statistically significant differences between control and treatment groups across all levels of developmental writing classes in the experiment. The experiment also showed that the treatment groups produced new pieces of writing that were significantly better than the students who did not follow the DWCF.
Kurser, Kendon. Dynamic Written Corrective Feedback in developmental Multilingual Writing Classes. TESOL Quarterly Vol. 52, No. 1, March 2018.
