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 written corrective feedback on the writing quality of Grade 11 students of English as a foreign language at Hidasse Secondary School, Central Ethiopia. A quasi-experimental research design was adopted for the study, and data were collected via tests and analyzed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and MANOVA. Three intact EFL groups were randomly selected from five Grade 11 sections; two were assigned as experimental groups to receive explicit and implicit feedback, while the third served as a comparison group and received no feedback. All participants completed a pre-test followed by 10 writing tasks with their respective written corrective feedback (WCF) as the intervention.ANOVA results indicated a significant main effect for both treatments; specifically, the explicit group achieved higher writing scores than both the implicit and control groups. MANOVA findings showed that lexical resources improved the most,whereas task achievement showed the least improvement. Based on the study findings, it is possible to conclude that the implementation of explicit written corrective feedback demonstrated significant efficacy within the Ethiopian secondary school EFL context. Furthermore, learners stand to gain significantly from the use of explicit WCF, and it is suggested that teachers integrate its application in classrooms.