Though recent research has shown that written corrective feedback (WCF) may improve aspects of writing accuracy in some English as a second language (ESL) contexts, many teachers continue to be confused about the practical steps they should utilize to help their students improve their writing. Moreover, some have raised concerns as to whether commonly used approaches to ESL writing pedagogy and grammar instruction are effective in helping students improve their linguistic accuracy. This article describes an instructional strategy we developed for improving students' accuracy based on insights gleaned from practice, research, and theory. We refer to this instructional methodology as dynamic WCF. The article also discusses a test of the methodology's efficacy that compared the performance of two groups of students, one using a conventional process approach to writing instruction and the other using the dynamic WCF approach. Test results demonstrated that although rhetorical competence, writing fluency, and writing complexity were largely unaffected by the dynamic WCF pedagogy, significant improvement was observed for writing accuracy.

In a review of over 25 empirical investigations of effects of communicating behavioral objectives to students, several trends were apparent. Advance knowledge of behavioral objectives led to improved posttest performance in five of ten studies and to improved retention in two of three instances. Only two of seven studies found an interaction between knowledge of objectives and type of learning: in one case knowledge acquisition but not comprehension was facilitated, while in the other knowledge of objectives interfered on a problem-solving task, but not on a discrimination task. A third group of studies reported interactions between availability of objectives and reasoning ability, personality characteristics, and state anxiety. Finally, when coupled with complete learner control of the course, knowledge of objectives decreased learning time.

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