The Effect of Written Corrective Feedback on Omani Students’Accuracy in the Use of English Prepositions

Oct 15, 2026

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A quasi-experimental study examines the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) for Arab speakers of English across ten uses of English prepositions. Participants received WCF over seven weeks with an emphasis on writing, including oral meta-linguistic tutorials and task-based support in the experimental group. Testing included pre-test, immediate post-test, and delayed post-test plus an open-ended questionnaire. Independent-samples t-test results show the experimental group outperforming the control group, and questionnaire analysis confirms benefits for preposition use with pedagogical implications for WCF.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. Literature Review

Advances in Language and Literary Studies ISSN: 2203-4714 Vol. 6 No. 1; February 2015 Australian International Academic Centre, Australia Flourishing Creativity & Literacy The Effect of Written Corrective Feedback on Omani Students’Accuracy in the Use of English Prepositions Ahmed Ali Saleh Al Ajmi Department of English Language & Literature (DELL), Rustaq College of Applied Sciences, Oman E-mail: [ahmed.ali.alajmi@gmail.com](ahmed.ali.alajmi@gmail.com) Doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.6n. 1p.61 URL: [http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.6n.1p.61](http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.6n.1p.61) Received: 14/09/2014 Accepted: 19/ 11/2014 Abstract A quasi-experimental study was conducted to examin the effectiveness of providing written corrective feedback (WCF) to Arab speakers of English on ten uses of English prepositions. Arab speakers commonly find it difficult to correctly use English propositions, mainly due to the differences between the two languages (e.g. Ortega, 2009) . Examples of prepositions misuse are “married from,”“die from,” and “kind with.” The WCF implementation lasted for seven weeks. The students ’being in intact classes made random assignments to different groups difficult. The data were derived from three tests: pre-test, immediate post-test and delayed post-test as well as an open-ended questionnaire. The experimental group (n= 25) received WCF on their writing, oral meta-linguistic tutorials, and a treatment task for their pre-test. For both the immediate post-test and the delayed post-test, they only received WCF on their writings. The control group (n= 25) only received general comments, like “good organization of the story events.” The statistical results of the independent samples t-test show the experimental group outperforming the control group on the target features. The analysis of the questionnaire data also shows the benefits of WCF for improving preposition use. The results also have pedagogical implications with regard to WCF. Keywords: WCF, writing, prepositions, students ’views, Arabic, EFL 1. Introduction According to Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006), feedback is information about students’ progress and performance. Feedback on ESL (English as a Second Language)/ EFL (English as a Foreign Language) writing is still debatable (Bitchener & Knoch, 2009a) . For instance, the debate includes such questions as how students respond to feedback on their writing, what teachers think about feedback, and what the best type of feedback is. In regard to the significance of feedback, Brick (2004) and Ferris (1999) underline the fact that feedback is not only valued by students, but also teachers find it of paramount importance. Furthermore, research on students ’ attitudes towards teacher feedback shows that ESL/EFL writing students appreciate the importance of feedback and that they consider it essential (Ferris & Roberts, 2001; Hyland, 1998; Lee, 2004) . They, according to Qi and Lapkin (2001), want their errors to be corrected. Given the situation, more research is needed to explore the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) . Bitchener and Knoch (2009a), for example, pointed out that further research is required in order to "investigate its effect on other linguistic error categories" (p. 208) . Accordingly, the current study is contributing to the research on WCF through this paper by specifically examining a new "linguistic error category": Arab speakers ’use of prepositions in English. The target language features, which will be looked at in detail in the methodology section, are commonly confused by Arab speakers due to L1 interference and literal translation (Kharma & Hajaj, 1997; Ortega, 2009) . This study is expected to bridge the gap in the literature and to provide more evidence ofWCF’s effectiveness. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Language Acquisition and Corrective Feedback Proponents of the innatist model of language learning have pointed out that lang

FAQs

What is the purpose of the study in examining WCF?

To examine the effectiveness of written corrective feedback on Arab speakers’ accuracy in using English prepositions across ten target uses.

How long did the WCF treatment last, and how were tests administered?

The WCF implementation lasted for seven weeks, with data derived from pre-test, immediate post-test, delayed post-test, and an open-ended questionnaire.

What did the experimental group and control group receive?

The experimental group received WCF with writing-related support (including oral meta-linguistic tutorials and a treatment task in the pre-test), while the control group received general comments such as feedback on story organization.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Terk