Are Two Heads Always Better Than One?

Abstract

Most research on the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) for accuracy improvement has focused on individual writing. There is scarce research about L2 accuracy through collaborative writing and feedback tasks, or about the types of linguistic categories on which learners focus while revising feedback collaboratively. In this chapter, the authors compare the effects of unfocused WCF on EFL learners' overall and specific linguistic accuracy in individual and collaborative writing conditions. The participants were low-intermediate EFL students (n=54 individuals; n=32 dyads). In each writing condition there was a feedback group and a control group (no feedback). All groups wrote a text, processed feedback (feedback groups) or self-identified errors (control groups) and rewrote their texts. Non-parametric statistics were conducted. Individual writing and feedback resulted in better accuracy than collaborative writing and feedback. The writing condition influenced learners' attempt to correct grammatical corrections depending on the availability of feedback.