investigating the effects of teacher feedback versus intra feedback on ielts writing task two of the iranian intermediate students

The paramount significance of writing is obvious in both first and second languages. a great shift has been observed from product-oriented approach to process-oriented view towards writing, in which giving feedback plays a vital role. there exist several feedback types, namely teacher and peer feedback. the annals of literature are replete with studies which have compared these two types with paradoxical findings. with regard to sociocultural theory, intra feedback has been introduced in which two reviewers’ comment on the writings individually and then they discuss the uncertainties with each other. to this end, the main aim of this study was investigating the effects of teacher feedback versus intra feedback on ielts writing task two of intermediate learners. it is worth noting that just advantage/disadvantage type was taken into consideration. the participants were 30 intermediate students (17 females and 13 males) who were assigned into two groups of teacher feedback and intra feedback. one group consisted of 15 students, whose writings were analyzed by teachers, and the other group included 15 learners who were assigned into five triads. after that, both groups took writing task two of ielts with a general topic as a pre-test. then, a pre-treatment session was also carried out to not only teach them how to write ielts writing exactly, but also how to give feedback in intra feedback group. four treatment sessions were held in which members in each triads of intra feedback group had to write and the other two members in the triads gave comments first individually and then collaboratively. the next stage was asking students to take a post-test to see whether any improvements have taken place in their writing skill or not. two independent sample t-tests were carried out and it was shown that although both groups were homogenous at the beginning of the study, intra-feedback group outperformed teacher-feedback group. also, the results of two paired sample t-tests demonstrated that although no significant difference has been observed for teacher feedback group from pre- to post-test, intra-feedback group improved significantly between these two time points. the finding has some implications for efl teachers and students.