The Effect of Teacher Feedback on the Simple Past Tense Acquisition in Senior High School Students' English Writing

Abstract

Teacher feedback is an essential part which can not be overlooked in English writing teaching. Whether teacher
feedback is effective and which type of feedback is more effective in improving learners’ writing proficiency have
attracted more and more researchers’ attention. Direct feedback is the feedback that teachers correct students’ errors
directly under the form or the right using habit of target language. Indirect feedback is the feedback that teachers
only mark out or point out students’ errors but not correct errors. This study explores the effects of two different
kinds of feedback (direct feedback and indirect feedback) on the acquisition of English simple past tense in high
school students’ writing. And it attempts to answer the following three questions: 1) Do teachers’ direct and indirect
feedback in English writing influence senior high school students’ acquisition of simple past tense? 2) If so, which
kind of feedback (direct or indirect feedback) has the greater influence on improving students’ acquisition of simple
past tense in English writing? 3) What perceptions do students have towards teachers’ direct and indirect feedback in
English writing?
The result showed that the two kinds of feedback have an influence on the acquisition of the target structure,
however, there is no significant difference between direct and indirect feedback group, which states that indirect
feedback class was not better than direct feedback class.