Effects of Asynchronous and Conventional Paper-and-Pen Metalinguistic Feedback on L2 Learners’ Use of Verb Tense

Although L2 researchers agree that written corrective feedback (WCF) improves L2 learners grammatical accuracy, few systematic studies have investigated the effect of computer-mediated feedback on improving L2 learners grammatical accuracy. This study was an attempt to investigate the comparative effects of two types of WCF (asynchronous computer-mediated and conventional paper-and-pen metalinguistic feedback on intermediate L2 learners’ use of verb tense. The participants were 49 L2 learners chosen via convenience sampling whose ages ranged from 18-25. They were in three intact settings in Simin Institute in Tehran. They were assigned into three groups including two experimental groups and one control group. To measure the participants knowledge of verb tense before treatment, a pretest was administered. In the next step, the experimental groups received metalinguistic feedback in separate settings whereas the control group did not receive any treatment. Finally, a posttest was used to measure the participants knowledge of verb tense after the treatment. Though the ANOVA findings suggested that both types of WCF resulted in the improvement of the participants’ verb tense accuracy, the effect of computer-mediated asynchronous feedback on the use of verb tense was more profound. In a conclusion, WCF had a significant effect on the verb tense accuracy of intermediate L2 learners.