The effect of direct and indirect feedback on possessive and positional suffixes in Turkish at Sakarya University language center (TÖEMR)

This present study aims at providing data on the effects of two types of written corrective feedback (direct feedback and indirect-underlining the incorrect part) on foreign students learning Turkish. The present study has a quasi-experimental and time-series research design. In this study, students were given writing topics appropriate to the curriculum for each week. Two classes of 19 and 21 students participated in the study. Writing topics were given as pretest at the beginning of the study and as posttest at the end of the study. In the pretest, the students wrote a paragraph. The pretest revealed how much the students already knew about the possessive suffixes and positional suffixes in Turkish. Students wrote paragraphs on different topics for five weeks between pretest and posttest. They received written corrective feedback and they were expected to rewrite their paragraphs by considering the feedback they received. One class was given direct feedback whereas the other was given indirect feedback in the form of underlining the mistake. In the posttest, a new paragraph was assigned to students. Writing activities were carried out in the same weeks with the same writing subjects for both groups. All writing activities were held in the classroom under teacher supervision. The data were computed as percentages and were analyzed under the framework of effect of two different corrective feedback types in correcting students' mistakes. In this study, the effect of indirect and direct feedback on students' learning of possessive suffixes and positional suffixes was investigated. The results illustrated that direct feedback is more effective for students in learning positional suffixes in Turkish. In addition, the results show that indirect feedback is confusing for students at level A1; therefore, it is not sufficiently descriptive. Keywords: Written Corrective Feedback, the Effect of Indirect and Direct Feedback,Student Attitudes