Corrective Feedback (CF) and English-Major EFL Learners’ Ability in Grammatical Error Detection and Correction

Corrective feedback (CF), the implicit or explicit information learners receive indicating a gap between their current, compared to the desired, performance, has been an area of interest for EFL researchers during the last few decades. This study, conducted on 139 English-major prospective EFL teachers, assessed the impact of two CF types (implicit vs. explicit) on students’ ability to detect and correct some “common†grammatical errors (definite and indefinite article, subject-verb agreement, prepositions, spelling, and logical connector use). The study used a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest with a 12-week treatment program. The results indicated a statistically significant difference in students’ performance prior to and after exposure to the intervention, confirming the positive role CF has on students' performance. However, there was no significant difference attributed to the type of CF introduced. The paper sets recommendations for both practitioners and researchers and suggests a reconceptualization of the EFL learning process.