The effects of mediation and corrective feedback on L2 writing development

This study explored the effects of Mediation-based Feedback and Direct Corrective Feedback on the linguistic accuracy and rhetorical development of EFL university students’ writing. A quasi-experimental design involved two L2 writing classes (mediation group vs. correction group), each receiving feedback across three writing tasks: pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test. The mediation group received dialogic, adaptive mediation aligned with learners’ Zones of Proximal Development, while the correction group received teacher-led direct corrections. Quantitative analyses revealed that the mediation group outperformed the correction group in linguistic accuracy, with statistically significant differences and a large effect size. Within-group comparisons showed that mediation led to moderate improvements in linguistic accuracy, while direct corrective feedback produced small yet meaningful gains. No significant between-group differences were found for rhetorical development; however, direct corrective feedback yielded sustained medium effect size gains, while the mediation group demonstrated initial progress that regressed over time. The study contributes to research on feedback by highlighting the benefits and limitations of mediation and correction in L2 writing development. © 2025 TESOL in Context. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – ShareAlike 4.0 International License.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/