Digital Feedback in a Crisis Period: A Study of Electronic Corrective Feedback on Ghanaian Students' Business Letters During the COVID-19

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Language and Literature Studies Vol. 5; no. 5; p. 15
• Main Author: Owusu, Edward
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Waterloo MATIS Translation Services 2025
• Subjects: COVID-19; Feedback; Internet; Learning environment; Multimedia; Punctuation; Questionnaires; Semantics; Spelling; Student writing; Syntax; Teachers; University students; Writing
• ISSN: 2564-2979; 2564-2979
• DOI: 10.53103/cjlls.v5i5.231

This study examined the efficacy of electronic corrective feedback (ECF) on the business letters of selected Ghanaian technical university students. A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was used for this study. Thus, the study employed both qualitative and quantitative data. Consequently, 80 scripts from 40 students (i.e., 40 pre-test and 40 post-test scripts), and 20 questionnaire items from the same students were used. At the pre-test level, the participants composed one business letter each. Afterwards, the ECF intervention was applied to the pre-test items. Then, they were asked to write another letter at the post-test level. After the pre- and post-test activities were conducted, the participants filled out questionnaires. Therefore, the sample size (in terms of raw data) was 120. The research, thus, investigated the types of ECF provided by teachers on students’ scripts, students' perceptions of ECF, and its impact on their writing skills. Findings indicate that teachers primarily used MS Word's track change feature to provide direct ECF, focusing on vocabulary, spelling, concord, punctuation, syntactic, and semantic errors. Students generally perceived this ECF as beneficial, reporting improved awareness of writing errors and enhanced writing skills. However, challenges such as limited Internet access, delayed feedback, electricity fluctuations, and difficulties in reviewing the pre-test items were noted. The study recommends that educators adapt feedback strategies to suit online learning environments better, incorporating multimedia feedback and regular virtual check-ins to enhance student engagement and understanding. The findings contribute to the growing body of research on technology-enhanced learning and feedback, offering insights into the potential of ECF to support student writing development in Ghana and at technical universities.