Abstract:

This paper aims to explore the Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners' ability to gain grammatical accuracy in their writing by noticing and correcting their own grammatical errors. Recent literature in language acquisition has emphasized the role of implicit tasks in encouraging learners to develop autonomous language learning habits, so it is important to consider tasks, particularly implicit tasks, as an important part of language teaching. In this study 60 EFL students from two elementary English classes were chosen. The students of one class were engaged in an implicit task in which they compared the use of grammar in their own writing to the use of that grammar in a written text by a native speaker, and the other class received no such treatment. The results indicated that the subjects who had received the treatment performed much better on the post-test. The outcome of the delayed post-test also confirmed the superior performance of the learners in the experimental group showing that they had internalized the targeted structure. Thus such tasks are beneficial in terms of allowing learners to autonomously make improvements in terms of grammatical accuracy in their writings

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