The effect of using direct corrective feedback and metalinguistic explanation techniques for Fl Egyptian learners’

الملخص EN

Egyptian learners in secondary schools were not accurate in using English indefinite articles and were confused when dealing with type 2 conditional sentences, as the researcher noticed during the weekly visits on practicum days.

The current research tried to assist the learners in solving this problem by using two techniques: (1) direct written corrective feedback, and 2 metalinguistic explanations to discover which one will leave a positive effect on learners’ performance.

The learners used the two techniques: once with another chance to write again, and once without this chance.

The researcher used the new texts to calculate learners’ performance and accuracy.

The findings were surprising to the researcher, as the feedback assisted the learners’ accuracy when using type 2 conditional sentences more than when using indefinite articles and the researcher was expecting the opposite.

In addition, the efficacy of direct corrective feedback lasted longer than that of metalinguistic explanation.

The findings revealed that giving time for revision after feedback had a positive effect on improving learners’ performance.

Moreover, the findings showed that learners’ performances improved when they received immediate correction of their errors instead of presenting a metalinguistic explanation.