The Effect of Direct Corrective Feedback on Senior High School Students' Writing Achievement

Abstract

This study aimed to determine whether direct corrective feedback significantly improves students' writing skills. A quasi-experimental design was employed, involving an experimental group that received direct corrective feedback and a control group that was taught using conventional feedback methods. To ensure fairness, both groups underwent a homogeneity test before treatment to confirm that their initial writing abilities were similar. After the intervention, a post test was administered, and the data were analysed using an independent t-test to compare the results. The findings revealed that direct corrective feedback had a statistically significant positive effect on students’ writing achievement. The experimental group achieved a higher mean score, demonstrating a noticeable improvement in writing performance compared to the control group. The t-test results showed a Sig. (2-tailed) value of 0.000, which is below the 0.05 threshold, indicating a significant difference between the groups. The mean difference of 4.100 points, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 2.311 to 5.889, confirms that the improvement in the experimental group was not due to random chance. The effectiveness of direct corrective feedback can be attributed to its explicit and immediate nature, allowing students to recognize, understand, and correct their mistakes efficiently. By receiving clear explanations and corrections, students develop greater awareness of grammatical structures, vocabulary usage, and overall writing accuracy, leading to long-term improvement. These findings align with previous research highlighting the pedagogical benefits of corrective feedback in language learning.