A Case Study on the Effects of Written Corrective Feedback on Collocation Competence: Evidence from a Public University in Malaysia

ABANG FHAEIZDHYALL, ABANG MADAUD (2023) A Case Study on the Effects of Written Corrective Feedback on Collocation Competence: Evidence from a Public University in Malaysia. PhD thesis, UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK (UNIMAS).

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Abstract

Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) has been and remains one of the most contentious issues in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) studies despite its prevalence in L2 classrooms. The ongoing debate regarding the overall effectiveness of WCF has produced numerous empirical findings that have led to the inconclusiveness of its overall effects. This study was conducted due to the following situations: (1) most undergraduate students in the university, where this study was conducted, had difficulties forming accurate collocations; (2) WCF is broadly used in L2 classrooms despite its inconclusive effects; (3) lack of empirical evidence to support the use of WCF in L2 classrooms in the Malaysian university context. Therefore, this case study was conducted to investigate the effects of direct and indirect WCF on the collocational competence of low and high-proficiency ESL learners in a public university in Malaysia. Four research questions were derived to guide the study: (1) What are the short-term effects of direct and indirect WCF on the collocation competence of the students in the study? (2) What are the long-term effects of direct and indirect WCF on the collocation competence of the students after nine weeks? (3) What WCF type has a greater effect on the students’ collocation competence? (4) What are the factors as perceived by the students that can contribute to or hinder the effectiveness of direct and indirect WCF in improving collocation competence? Data were collected from multiple sources which include a quantitative approach of using a series of collocation test instruments (i.e., Test 1, Test 2, and Test 3), an open-ended questionnaire, field notes, and course information document. The study was conducted during the academic session of September 2019-February 2020 with a total of 120 ESL students in a public university in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia. The students were identified based on their performance in the previous semester’s English course that was used to determine their proficiency groups which includes several-low-proficiency (e.g., Group 1, Group 2) and high-proficiency iv (Group 3, Group 4). The findings have revealed that direct and indirect WCF have positive short-term effects on the collocational competence of all groups. In addition, concerning the students’ proficiency in this case study, the findings suggest that indirect WCF may not provide long-term benefits to low-proficiency ESL students (Group 3), but it may be beneficial to high-proficiency ESL students (Group 4). In highlighting the findings from the third research question, direct WCF is the fittest type of corrective feedback to facilitate their collocation competence. Moreover, this case study has also revealed several causes that can lead to the effectiveness of WCF practices such as learners’ factors and the nature of corrective feedback factors. On the other hand, contextual factors and the nature of corrective feedback factors can contribute to the ineffectiveness of WCF. This study has contributed to generating new knowledge in the literature, providing empirical evidence to guide language educators’ practices of using WCF, and creating new directions for future researchers.

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