محمود دهقان

Providing feedback in foreign language learning is very important. From among different types of feedback, written corrective feedback (WCF) seems to be more effective than others in writing improvement. So, present study investigated the effect of online written corrective feedback (WCF) through WhatsApp messenger versus written corrective feedback in the classroom on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ coherence and cohesion in writing. To this end, 45 female EFL intermediate learners were recruited to participate in this study. They were assigned to three groups to form two experimental groups and one control group. In the first experimental group (classroom group), the learners received WCF on their piece of writing in the classroom, the second experimental group (WhatsApp group) was given WCF online through WhatsApp messenger and the control group received no WCF. The findings indicated that the WhatsApp and classroom groups had significantly higher means on the posttests of coherence and cohesion than their pretests. It was also revealed that there was not statistically significant difference between students’ performance in pretest and posttest of control group. Finally, the findings showed that there was not any significant difference between WhatsApp and classroom groups’ means on the posttest of coherence and cohesion. These findings have important implications for developing EFL intermediate learners’ coherence and cohesion in writing.