From Must to Can and Will: Written Corrective Feedback and Modal Verb Use in L2 Learners of English

Whether written corrective feedback (WCF) contributes to improving English grammatical accuracy remains a debated issue in the literature. This study asks whether such feedback (direct or indirect) affects second language (L2) use of English modal verbs (will, can, must). Arabic does not realise modal verbs grammatically. The study was conducted with 48 Saudi Arabic-speaking participants who were divided into three groups of 16 (direct WCF, indirect WCF and control). The data collection instrument was a 24-item multiple choice test, and the study adopted a longitudinal design of pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test (PrT, PoT and DeP). The findings revealed that: a) direct and indirect WCF were both beneficial in the PoT; b) direct WCF showed more retention effects in the DeP than the indirect WCF; and c) the least challenging modal verb was will and the most challenging was must.