| This study explores the relationship between second language acquisition and learning to write in a second language by way of the study of written feedback. SLA research has shown that feedback which draws attention to linguistic form while learners are engaged in communication can make a difference over the long term in the acquisition of selected lexical and morphosyntactic features (Harley, 1993; Long, 1996; Mackey & Goo, 2007; Russell & Spada, 2006). A challenge, however, also exists as to whether negative evidence conveyed in feedback is available to learners, and whether it is usable and used by them (Long, 1996, 2007; Pinker, 1989). Differences between speech and writing warrant examining whether teacher written feedback that draws attention to form, meaning, and function relationships can be made usable by students in improving their written production.;An instrumental case study (Stake, 2000) was conducted over one semester in an advanced theological writing class for graduate ESL, students. The teacher-researcher provided written feedback based on L2 writing pedagogy (Ferris & Hedgcock, 2005; Williams, 2005), incorporating SLA features such as heightened saliency, sensitivity to learner readiness, and facilitation of pushed output with attention to form-meaning connections. Research questions about students' use and perception of SLA-informed feedback were addressed. The original drafts, teacher feedback, and revisions of 14 papers in the same genre were analyzed, supplemented by student retrospection.;Results showed that students used almost all of the 340 tokens of SLA-informed feedback to improve structure and coherence of subsequent writing, identify the nature of their writing problems, and generate original solutions. They perceived SLA-informed feedback as comprehensible, systematic, and helpful for understanding sentence structure. Because SLA-informed feedback is time-consuming to implement, it should be reserved for use with specific target structures. |
