زهرا عبداللهیان دهکردی مسعود رحیمی دومکانی
current studies in second language (l2) learning have revealed the positive role of corrective feedback (cf) in both oral and written forms in different language features. the present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of both direct and indirect written corrective feedback (wcf) on the use of grammatical collocations in l2 writing. the study also sought to examine whether the effect of direct or indirect wcf was retained over time. to this end, 90 undergraduate students majoring in english translation at islamic azad university of shahrekord and payam-e-noor university were selected through oxford placement test (opt, 1992) and divided in 3 groups: 2 experimental groups (direct and indirect groups) and 1 control group. the study had a quasi-experimental design with pretests, immediate posttests, and delayed posttests. in the pretests, all the 3 groups wrote 3 essays based on the topics given to them by the researcher. then, the grammatical collocational errors of the 2 experimental groups were corrected directly and indirectly, respectively. for encouraging the participants to show their performance on the use of grammatical collocations, 2 tasks such as matching items and multiple choices were given to them. in the immediate and delayed posttests, all the 3 groups wrote 3 essays, and their writings were scored by 2 raters. they were given one point to the correct use and zero point to the incorrect use of grammatical collocations. the data were analyzed through mixed between-within subject anova. the findings showed that although both experimental groups performed better than the control group, the second experimental group (i.e., the indirect group) outperformed the direct group. also, the effect of indirect wcf was retained in the delayed posttest. thus, the findings of the study can show the pedagogical importance of the effect of indirect wcf over direct wcf on the use of grammatical collocations in l2 writing. in addition, indirect wcf has both the immediate and lasting effect on the use of grammatical collocations in l2 writing.
