The Effect of Instructional Intervention on Errors in Writing: The Relationship between Uptake, Retention, and Target Form

Many studies have been conducted to examine the effect of instructional intervention, such as explicit feedback, in writing on revising errors or on retaining their correct forms. Collectively, these studies are however unclear in two ways: 1. On the feedback effect on the whole process composed of both uptake1 at revision and retention after revision, and 2. On the influence of target-form type on feedback effect. This study focuses on the effects of feedback on uptake and retention and of awareness enhancement on retention, by using the same target forms among subjects and in every test. I began by positing three hypotheses: 1. Feedback causes uptake and retention more than no feedback. 2. More forms can be retained by enhanced awareness than simple awareness. 3. Each effect of feedback and awareness enhancement depends on the type of forms. The study was conducted with 338 undergraduates, using eight target forms. The results supported the hypotheses, suggesting that feedback has a better effect than no feedback and awareness enhancement has a better effect than simple awareness, whereas both uptake and retention of target forms were more at sentence- level than context-level