The Role of Written Corrective Feedback in EFL Writing

Abstract

There is a great body of literature that indicates that writing is the most difficult language skill in language learning. Students often find it challenging to write a coherent, well thought and well accurate piece of writing because of the various aspects (organization, content, grammar, syntax, word choice) they need to satisfy while writing. For teachers of writing, what matters is not students’ mastery of all these aspects at once, but their ability to write a good piece of writing. This aim is really disregarded once the produced paper receives little or no feedback on students’ writing. Therefore, the proposed paper aims at outlining the different strategies and types of written corrective feedback that English foreign language (EFL) teachers employ to respond to students’ writings, focusing on the definitions, characteristics, advantages and limitations of each strategy and type. Suggestive dimensions of feedback provision and useful tips on implementing good feedback are also addressed.