The Effects of Audio Feedback on the L2 Writing Quality

The present study investigates the effects of training ESL students to utilize audio feedback on the fluency, accuracy, content and organization of their writing. It also examines ESL student attitudes and perceptions towards audio feedback and audio feedback training. Audio feedback is an innovative error correction technique in which the teacher records comments on students' writing and saves them as an audio file. The audio file is then used by the student to revise a piece of writing. Audio feedback training refers to the idea of training ESL students on how to successfully utilize audio feedback in order to reap its benefits during writing revision. Using a pretest and posttest utilizing TOFEL argumentative prompts, the researcher collected writing samples from 39 ESL students studying English at an American accredited university in Cairo, Egypt. The participants were divided into two groups, a control group and an experimental group. Prior to the posttest, both groups were given audio feedback on writing errors pertaining to fluency, accuracy, content, and organization. The experimental group also received a 20-minute audio feedback training session.