Language Teaching Research Quarterly

Over the past three decades, the role of written corrective feedback in improving L2 writing has been controversial. Although, a considerable amount of research has investigated WCF from a range of perspectives, limitations in the research design of many studies call into question the validity of their findings, thereby reducing their generalizability. This paper aims to further WCF research by investigating these limitations and offering suggestions for possible research designs, identifying key contextual variables and target structures, considering the roles of explicit and implicit knowledge, individual differences, and teachers’ WCF proficiency levels and WCF beliefs.