The Effect of Teacher Feedback on the Accuracy of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners' Writings: Coherence in Focus

Abstract

This study researched coherence in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' writings by taking transition signals into account. Transition signals were used as the operationalized measurement of this construct. The study was undertaken to see whether the implicit feedback plays any role on the coherence of learners' writings. To meet the purpose, a twenty two session class was held for 15 advanced level EFL learners learning English in a language institute. Every session students were required to write on a topic proposed by the teacher, one at home and one in class. Writings were then handed over to the teacher to be checked and corrected. Corrections mainly focused on the incoherent sentences. A pretest was administered to the participants prior to the treatment. Twenty two sessions of instruction each about an hour comprised the whole treatment. In the last session a post-test was administered which proved to have a strong correlation with the pretest. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in the coherence of texts. Besides, the number of incoherent sentences committed by the students decreased in the posttest and the number of transition signals used increased which was an explanation for the effectiveness of the treatment.