Effects of Explicit and Implicit Written Corrective Feedback on Writing Quality: The Case of Ethiopian Secondary School EFL Learners

Abstract

This study examined the effects of explicit and implicit feedback on the writing quality of Grade 11 students of English as a foreign language at Hidasse Secondary School, Central Ethiopia. A time series quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study, and the data were collected via tests and analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and MANOVA. Three intact groups of EFL learners were selected through random sampling from a total of five Grade 11 sections. Two of the groups were assigned to two different experimental conditions (explicit and implicit feedback), and the third group was used as a comparison group. After taking a pre-test, the participants in each group were given ten writing tasks and provided with either explicit, implicit, or no feedback. The findings of ANOVA indicate that the participants’ writings in the treatment groups exhibited statistically significantly better quality than the writings of the participants in the control group. Moreover, the Explicit Group outperformed the Implicit and Control Groups. The findings of MANOVA show that a significant improvement was exhibited in the coherence and cohesion of the participants’ writings more than in other writing quality criteria; the use of lexical resources showed the least improvement. Based on the study findings, it is possible to conclude that the implementation of Explicit Written Corrective Feedback could be effective in the Ethiopian EFL context; furthermore, learners stand to gain significantly from the use of explicit WCF, and teachers should prioritize its application in English as foreign language (EFL) classrooms.