Comprehensive or Selective Feedback, that is the Question. A Literature Review Focusing on Writing Strategies in an EFL/ESL Classroom

Abstract

This literature review illustrates what research indicate is more preferable, comprehensive or selective written feedback in English classrooms. This is not an easy question to answer because there are some researchers who claim that even written feedback is not beneficial to EFL and ESL learners. Truscott’s (1996) claim that grammatical correction should be avoided started a debate amongst researchers and the research has thereafter mainly been focusing on falsifying this claim. There are no definite answers to which feedback is better but there is evidence which shows that selective written feedback has been more effective to learners than comprehensive. However, this is only when looking at one specific grammatical feature, definitive articles. However, there has been a positive development in focused meta-linguistic feedback research which will be acknowledged. This literature review will not give any general guidelines to teachers but will try to show them the direction research are heading and which fields that are not fully investigated.