Differential Effects of Corrective Feedback Types on the Acquisition of Conditional Sentences

The current study aimed at examining the differential effects of corrective feedback (CF) on the acquisition of conditional sentences. To this end, 50 Iranian high intermediate EFL learners were randomly selected and assigned to 5 groups of 10: elicitation focus on form (FFI), recasts FFI, metalinguistic feedback FFI, FFI-only and control. FFI was implemented by the input enhancement technique along with input manipulation in the form of text reconstruction during which CFs were provided. Each conditional type was targeted in three sessions and the related immediate posttests were given in the following sessions, and the delayed versions were run with a two-week interval. Results suggested that CF effectiveness is a multifaceted phenomenon and the linguistic target, type of feedback, and timing of posttests play key roles. Awareness of the impact of CF on the the development of knowledge of grammar serves helpful for teachers to plan their syllabi