The role of reformulation and noticing tasks in improving the grammatical accuracy of B1 level Turkish EFL learners

Providing effective feedback to EFL learners on their output is essential in the improvement of their writing accuracy. The present quasi-experimental study aims to investigate the impact of reformulation and noticing tasks on learners' writing accuracy, their ability to notice the mismatches between the two versions of their writing, and their attitude towards this new feedback tool. The present study suggests a positive relationship between providing reformulation as feedback and the improvement of EFL learners' grammatical accuracy in writing. This mixed-methods study involved a total of 30 Turkish EFL students at B1 level of the preparatory program of a private university in Turkey. The treatment of the experimental group (n = 15) included comparison of their paragraph with its reformulation followed by completion of a learning journal to stimulate noticing of the differences, and a question-answer stage for interactional feedback. The comparison group (n = 15) received explicit corrective feedback in the traditional way and a question-answer stage as interactional feedback. The quantitative data was collected through a pre-test and a post-test in the form of paragraph writing, in addition to learning journals and stimulated recall interviews with the experimental group followed by a final focus group interview. The analyses of the data were carried out via tracing the target-like forms, the number of reformulations and noticing in the learners' output. While the quantitative data indicate a positive effect on the improvement of overall general accuracy, no significant effects were found between the two groups with respect to target grammatical forms. However, the qualitative data show how this feedback tool increases learners' noticing of their incorrect grammatical use. The learners' attitude is also found to be positive towards receiving a native-like version of their output as a model text. Keywords: reformulation, feedback, noticing, writing accuracy