Although the findings of second language (L2) studies conducted to date have provided evidence for the positive effect of written corrective feedback (hereafter feedback) on improving L2 learners’ writing grammatical accuracy, there is no conclusive evidence regarding which kind of feedback is more beneficial for enhancing L2 writing. This study compares the differential effects of giving and receiving unfocused direct feedback on improving Iranian EFL learners’ writing accuracy. To this end, 61 learners of English were randomly assigned to three groups, including a feedback giver group (n = 19), a feedback receiver group (n = 22), and a control group (n = 20). The participating groups took Cambridge English Preliminary Test (PET), completed four translation tasks as the treatment, and took two tests, namely a translation test and a picture description test. The data analysis indicated the effectiveness of the feedback provided by peers. Additionally, further data analysis revealed that the participants in the feedback giver group outperformed the participants in the feedback receiver and the control groups in translation and picture description tests, underscoring the positive effect of giving feedback on learners themselves rather than learners who receive feedback. The findings and potential pedagogical implications of the study are discussed in detail.

尽管迄今为止进行的第二语言（L2）研究的结果已经提供了书面纠正反馈（以下称反馈）对提高第二语言学习者的写作语法准确性的积极影响的证据，但尚无确凿的证据表明哪种反馈更有益用于增强L2写作。这项研究比较了给予和接受直接关注的直接反馈对提高伊朗EFL学习者写作准确性的不同影响。为此，将61名英语学习者随机分为三组，包括反馈给予者组（n  = 19），反馈接受者组（n  = 22）和对照组（n = 20）。参加小组参加了剑桥英语预备考试（PET），完成了四项翻译任务，并参加了两项测试，即翻译测试和图片描述测试。数据分析表明了同行提供的反馈的有效性。此外，进一步的数据分析显示，在翻译和图片描述测试中，反馈给予者组的参与者优于反馈接受者和对照组的参与者，强调了对学习者本身而不是接收反馈的学习者提供反馈的积极作用。该研究的发现和潜在的教学意义进行了详细讨论。