An Action Research On Effects Of Corrective Feedback On Grammatical Fossilization In Senior High School Students' English Writing

Writing is an indispensable part of English learning,but the overall level of writing achievements of senior high school students in China is not very ideal,there are many grammatical errors in their compositions.Corrective feedback is a writing teaching method based on teachers and peers providing feedback information.Language fossilization means that second language learners' inter-language develops to a certain level,and then stagnates.The emergence of grammatical fossilization results from influences of their mother tongue in the use of the target language,causing them not very good at grasping grammatical rules.Grammatical fossilization is a dynamic process,affecting senior high school students' English writing achievements.There are few action researches on whether corrective feedback is effective to alleviate students' grammatical fossilization while there are sufficient studies on grammatical rules learning and corrective feedback.Based on Inter-language theory,Output hypothesis and Written corrective feedback theory,an action research is conducted to explore how corrective feedback affects Senior One students' grammatical fossilization.The study aims to probe into three questions: 1)Can corrective feedback alleviate senior one students' language fossilization in their compositions? 2)In which aspects,corrective feedback can alleviate grammatical fossilization of senior one students at different levels? 3)Does corrective feedback improve writing achievements of senior one students in English compositions?The author randomly chose 108 senior one students of two classes in Grade One in a senior high school from Guangzhou to conduct an action research which lasted 18 weeks.This study mainly adopts qualitative research,and uses quantitative research as a supplement.Through interview,questionnaires and tests,the author analyzed students' writing situation,and the causes why they formed grammatical fossilization,and changes in their attitudes towards corrective feedback before and after the action research.Then the author arrived at the conclusions,and reflected on the research process.Finally,some measures about writing situation were taken into action.This study conducted three rounds,each round includes problem identification,research design,implementing the action plan,reflection on four steps in teaching.According to the reflection of each round,the study will make adjustments of research plans and actions in the new round.In the first round,the author tried to use corrective feedback to alleviate students' grammatical fossilization.In the second round,among 108 participants in two classes,the top students with highest English writing scores in pre-test were chosen as higher English proficiency students,while the bottom students with lowest English writing scores were chosen as lower English proficiency students.The aim is to gain better understanding of language fossilization of students at different levels.In the third round of action research,the author analyzed students' three writing tests,trying to give students corrective feedback information again and again in order to alleviate their grammatical fossilization so as to improve their writing achievements.The results of the research illustrate 1)Corrective feedback can alleviate senior one students' language fossilization in their compositions;2)Corrective feedback can help senior one students alleviate their grammatical fossilization in tense agreement,tense and voice,word order,articles,English collocations,punctuation and part of speech;3)Students with higher English achievements benefited more in developing tense agreement,tense and voice,articles and part of speech,while those with lower English achievements benefited more in developing word order,English collocations and punctuation;4)Corrective feedback can improve English writing achievements of senior one students in English compositions.