Another reply to Truscott on error correction: Improved situated designs over statistics

Apart from the focus on error correction for language accuracy in L2 writing being very narrow, I argue that research design questions are much more important than statistical analyses, very often used to hide defects in the research. Furthermore, since error correction in L2 writing has a fundamental pedagogical purpose, it is necessary to situate research into L2 error correction in writing not only contextually, but also within a decision-making framework, which was the point in my earlier article (Bruton, 2009a). In addition to questioning many of Truscott's arguments, including psycholinguistic, psychological, social and pedagogical issues, I believe there are two fundamentally different research questions: Is teacher response to errors alone in L2 writing necessarily the best feedback or the worst feedback for improvement in the accuracy of future L2 writing? (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.