https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168818770921 Language Teaching Research 1–25 © The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1362168818770921 journals.sagepub.com/home/ltr LANGUAGE TEACHING RESEARCH Effects of written corrective feedback and language aptitude on verb tense accuracy Susan Benson St. Petersburg College, USA Robert DeKeyser University of Maryland, USA Abstract Most second language researchers agree that there is a role for corrective feedback in second language writing classes. However, many unanswered questions remain concerning the linguistic features to target and the type and amount of feedback to offer. This study examined essays by 151 learners of English as a second language (ESL), in order to investigate the effect of either direct or metalinguistic written feedback on errors with the simple past tense and the present perfect tense. This inquiry also considered the extent to which learner differences in language- analytic ability (LAA), as measured by the LLAMA F, mediated the effects of these two types of explicit written corrective feedback. Learners in both feedback groups were provided with corrective feedback on two essays whereas the control group received general comments on content. Learners in all three groups then completed two additional writing tasks to determine whether or not the provision of corrective feedback led to greater gains in accuracy compared to no feedback. Both treatment groups performed better than the comparison group on new pieces of writing immediately following the treatment sessions, yet direct feedback was more durable than metalinguistic feedback for one structure, the simple past tense. Participants with greater LAA proved more likely to achieve gains in the direct feedback group than in the metalinguistic group, whereas learners with lower LAA benefited more from metalinguistic feedback. Keywords feedback in second language writing, focused error correction, language learning aptitude, verb tense, written corrective feedback Corresponding author: Susan Benson, St. Petersburg College, P.O. Box 13489, St. Petersburg, FL 33733-3489, USA. Email: benson.susan@spcollege.edu 770921LTR 0 0 10.1177/1362168818770921Language Teaching ResearchBenson and DeKeyser research-article 2018 Full Research Article