Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences ISSN: 2231-6345 (Online) An Online International Journal Available at http://www.cibtech.org/jls.htm 2013 Vol. 3 (1) January-March, pp.256-262/Tabasi et al. Research Article 256 THE IMPACT OF FEEDBACK TYPES-BASED INSTRUCTION ON IRANIAN INTERMEDIATE EFL LEARNERS’ LETTER WRITING PERFORMANCE *Hamideh Tabasi, Morteza Khodabandehlou and Shahrokh Jahandar Department of English Language, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon Branch, Iran *Author for Correspondence ABSTRACT This study was conducted to investigate the impact of feedback types-based instruction on Iranian intermediate EFL learners‟ letter writing performance. For these purpose 120 learners of English at SHOKUH language institute participated in the study. A TOEFL test was administered to the whole subjects out of whom 80 participants whose scores fell within the range of 407 to 427 were selected. They were randomly assigned into two groups, each group of 40. Then both groups sat for a pre-test of letter writing. The purpose of this test was to measure the learners‟ initial subject knowledge of letter writing performance. Then each group received seven sessions treatment based on the two types of feedback, „explicit and implicit‟. Finally, both groups sat for the post-test of letter writing performance. Then the statistical analysis was run through T-test. It was explored from the study that learners‟ writing ability improves when they are provided with feedback whether explicit or implicit. However, the learners performed better when they were provided with explicit feedback than implicit one. On the other hand, implicit feedback had a significant contribution to the performance of learners‟ with respect to content. Key Words: Explicit Feedback, Implicit Feedback, Letter Writing Application INTRODUCTION Writing, as one of the productive language skills, is much more used than generally realized. Given the importance of writing in both daily and professional life, attempts have been made to teach this skill in an efficient way. As Silve (1990) believes, one way to understand the past trend of writing is looking back at the major trends in foreign language writing in the past in order to identify their developments, orientations, successes, failures, etc. Historically, the writing, models identified include: product, process and genre writing model. According to Badger and White (2000) the main concern of product approach is the logical arrangement of discourse forms. As a result, paragraph is of primary concern and attention is paid not only to its elements (topic sentence, supporting sentences, conclusion sentences and translation), but also various options for the development of the paragraph (e.g. illustration, exemplification, comparison) are dealt with (Badger and White, 2000). In the, aptly named, product approach a student‟s attention focuses in adhering to and duplication of models and in particular on correct language. This implies that in this approach meaning and functions are not taken into account and writing is decontextualised. In the process approach, the instructor is expected to guide the learner through the composing process rather than controlling. “Process approach to teaching and learning of second language writing argue for teacher intervention and feedback at key points within the process” (Goldstein, 2004). According to Holmes (1997), the genre approach is a more recent approach which takes into account the context and purpose of the writing. In fact the process and the product approaches fell short of an effective means to include the function of writing in a writing course (Holmes, 1997). Thus, given the fact that today genre is the focus of many writing classes in which learners are provided with rules of how to do writing in a special domain, the predictions from relevant body of research can have different types of error feedbacks in the context of genre. Thus, first the definition of genre, in general, and application letter as a kind of genre and a concern of this study are in order. Hyland (2003) defines as “abstract, socially recognized ways of using language”. This definition implies that purpose is a necessity in any short of genre. Similarity, Swales (1990) refers to genre as “same set of communicative purpose” (p.58) which det ermine the structure of the discourse and influence and