المستخلص: |
This research aimed to investigate the effectiveness of ‘correction codes’, ‘whole-class oral feedback on common issues in writing,’ and ‘metacognitive strategy encouragement’ as writing correction techniques in improving Preparatory-Stage students’ EFL writing and alleviating the problem of EFL teachers’ over-correction of their students’ writing. A quasi-experimental approach with one experimental and one control group design was adopted. The experimental group was taught by the three techniques whereas the control group was taught using the 'teacher's written comments.' The participants comprised 56 students enrolled at the 24th of October Preparatory-Stage Official School; they were randomly selected and equally divided into two groups (24 students each). The research mainly designed two instruments: 1. a writing skill checklist and 2. a writing pre-post-test aided with writing correction rubrics (developed by the researcher) with criteria, elements, scores, and correction codes administered for correcting the students' writing. The results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the writing post-test. The related effect size was at a 'medium' level (p <0.05), and the numbers of students' errors were reduced at a higher rate in the experimental group than in the control group. Therefore, it was concluded that 'correction codes, whole-class oral feedback on common issues in writing, and metacognitive strategy encouragement' as writing correction techniques were more effective in both developing students' writing and reducing their errors and thus teachers' over-correction than 'the teacher's written comments.' It was recommended that the three techniques be employed when teachers correct students' writing, more research be administered to test their related effectiveness in the other three language skills at the other educational levels in Egypt, and a broader investigation be carried out.
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