Advancing written corrective feedback: developing and testing a support site for writers

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K00853
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
• Research Institution: Prefectural University of Kumamoto
• Principal Investigator: Lavin Richard 熊本県立大学, 文学部, 教授 (70347699)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): Morrow Jeffrey 熊本県立大学, 環境共生学部, 准教授 (10760093) ; 吉井 誠 熊本県立大学, 文学部, 教授 (70240231)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: writing / feedback / ライティング / フィードバック / language education / 英語教育

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Writing compositions in English is a common task given to students at universities. Without feedback, only very limited progress in students' writing performance can be expected. Problems with standard feedback practices include: (1) It tends to be time-consuming for teachers; (2) It is not standardized and therefore may be arbitrary; (3) It may not be understood by students; (4) It is often focused on correcting individual errors, rather than teaching students to recognize types of errors.
The current research attempts to overcome these limitations through the creation of a custom website that provides feedback on error types that frequently occur in Japanese students' compositions. The website runs on a blog engine and features many micro-posts, one post per type of error, each with its own unique URL. When encountering an error of a familiar type, a teacher can copy the URL of the relevant micropost and paste it into the relevant part, thus providing standardized feedback.

Free Research Field

応用言語学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

The current research allows writing instructors to provide feedback on errors in an efficient and standardized way. This enhances students' consciousness of errors as reflections of incorrect understandings, and increases the likelihood that they will be able to avoid similar errors in future.