THE EFFECTS OF DIRECT AND HEURISTIC CORRECTION ON FIRST YEAR LEVEL COLLEGE COMPOSITIONS

Many experienced teachers of EFL composition
have found that withholding specific information
about errors in general is a sound technique. Yet, a
review of the literature shows that there is no
concensus about the kinds of errors that should be
left up to the learner to edit and those errors
which are" best dealt with by the instructor. This
study ~ttempts to estimate the efficiency of a
direct correction approach compared with a
discovery method which requires the learners to
edit their own papers with a minimum of guidance
from the instructor. Frequencies of particular
types of errors were calculated and a comparison
was made between group membership and subsequent
numbers of individuals making errors in
each error category above or below the total
mean. This information provides a general index
to the types of mistakes that proved to be correctable
and those that were not, thus suggesting a heirarchy
for direct as opposed to heuristic feedback.