The Effects of Direct and Indirect Written Corrective Feedbacks on the Business Communication Texts of Technical University Students

Abstract

Grading of texts is a major issue in the field of teaching and learning of Business Communication. One emerging technique used in grading students' texts is corrective feedback. This research was an effort to investigate the effects that direct and indirect written corrective feedbacks had on the business letters of students of Ho Technical University, Ghana. Forty HND 1 (first year) students in the Department of Marketing from the 2016/2017 Academic Year batch of Ho Technical University were the selected participants for this qualitative study. A total of 80 raw data were solicited from the participants. These comprise 40 pre-test and 40 posttest materials (80 texts). Each participant composed two letters-one at the pre-test level and the other at the post-test level. After the pre-test, the texts of the students were divided into two groups. The texts of the first group (DF) were graded using direct feedback method and those of the other group (IF) were graded using indirect feedback method. After the pre-test, the participants were asked to rewrite the business letter. The results from the post-test showed that students performed better at the post-test level when direct feedback technique was applied on their pre-test texts.

Pedagogic Strategies for Stimulating Long’s (1980) Interaction Hypothesis in the Second Language Classroom

“…For instance, in Owusu (2017Owusu ( & 2019, direct feedback (DF) and indirect feedback (IF) interventions corrected memorandum and business letter errors better than the nofeedback (NF) intervention; however, the potency of the DF intervention was stronger than that of the IF. The findings of Owusu (2017Owusu ( & 2019 align with Owusu (2020), where the results from a post-test displayed that students performed better at the posttest level when the DF technique was applied to their pre-test texts.…”

A Study of the Grading of English Language Scripts of Technical University Students in Ghana

“…Since the publication of Truscott (1996) and the subsequent rebuttal of Ferris (1996), there has been a huge debate in grammar correction. For example, in Chandler (2003), Mubarak (2013), Owusu (2017Owusu ( , 2019Owusu ( , 2020b) Direct Corrective Feedback (DCF) was strong in correcting errors as against Indirect Corrective Feedback (ICF), and No Corrective Feedback (NCF) techniques. Also, Bitchener et al, (2005), argued that L2 teachers should provide their learners with both oral and written CF on errors.…”