Oral Corrective Feedback: Its effects on the acquisition of English, teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ beliefs
This doctoral thesis aims to contribute to the growing body of research which shows that oral corrective feedback or error correction is beneficial for second language acquisition. It also seeks to address the pedagogical question of how oral feedback can be implemented in communicative language...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis |
| Language: | spa |
| Published: |
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10171/40462 |
| _version_ | 1793400523793104896 |
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| author | Roothooft, H. (Hanne) Breeze, R. (Ruth) |
| author_facet | Roothooft, H. (Hanne) Breeze, R. (Ruth) |
| author_sort | Roothooft, H. (Hanne) |
| collection | DSpace |
| description | This doctoral thesis aims to contribute to the growing body of research which shows that oral
corrective feedback or error correction is beneficial for second language acquisition. It also
seeks to address the pedagogical question of how oral feedback can be implemented in
communicative language classrooms. With these aims in mind, a series of three empirical
studies was designed based on a review of the existing literature on oral corrective feedback.
First of all, a quasi-experimental classroom study was carried out to compare the effects of
two types of feedback on the accurate oral production and acquisition of the English regular
and irregular past simple tense. Two intact classes of intermediate learners at a Spanish
university carried out communicative storytelling tasks during which they received either
elicitation or metalinguistic feedback on their past tense errors. Both types of feedback were
found to impact the acquisition of the target structure positively, but there were some
indications that metalinguistic feedback could be more helpful for the immediate repair of
students’ errors and could also be more effective for the acquisition of the target structure.
Moreover, metalinguistic feedback was found to have larger effects than elicitation on the
acquisition of the irregular past tense. This study also indicates that oral corrective feedback,
even in an explicit form, can be combined successfully with a communicative focus, since the
students responded favourably to the treatment and stated that their confidence and fluency
had grown.
A second empirical study investigated the feedback practices of 10 adult EFL teachers and
compared these to their stated beliefs about error correction, elicited by means of an openended
questionnaire. It was found that the most frequently used way of correcting was
recasting or reformulating the student’s utterance, which confirms results from previous
observational studies. The teachers stated they felt feedback was important, but at the same
time they expressed a concern for the promotion of fluency and confidence. It also appears
that most teachers are not fully aware of how they correct their students’ spoken errors.
Finally, a larger number of teachers and students from an adult EFL and a secondary school
context took part in a survey-study which elicited their attitudes to oral corrective feedback.
Previous findings that students tend to ask for much more feedback than their teachers
believe to be necessary were confirmed in this study. Moreover, the teachers and students
also disagreed about the best way of correcting, since the students showed a preference for
more explicit types while the teachers were not convinced of the effectiveness of these
techniques. Finally, teachers’ preoccupation with possible negative affective reactions to
corrective feedback do not appear to be justified based on the results of this survey-study,
since the majority of both adult and teenage students stated they rarely or never experience
feelings such as embarrassment or inhibition as a result of being corrected when they speak. In conclusion, based on these results it appears that teachers should not be afraid to use more
explicit types of feedback, since (1) these were found to be beneficial for the accurate
production and acquisition of certain grammatical structures, (2) they seem to be compatible
with a communicative focus and (3) they tend to be preferred by students. |
| format | info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis |
| id | oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171-40462 |
| institution | Universidad de Navarra |
| language | spa |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171-404622020-03-11T13:36:59Z Oral Corrective Feedback: Its effects on the acquisition of English, teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ beliefs Roothooft, H. (Hanne) Breeze, R. (Ruth) Materias Investigacion::Filología y Literatura Enseñanza de lenguas Lingüística aplicada This doctoral thesis aims to contribute to the growing body of research which shows that oral corrective feedback or error correction is beneficial for second language acquisition. It also seeks to address the pedagogical question of how oral feedback can be implemented in communicative language classrooms. With these aims in mind, a series of three empirical studies was designed based on a review of the existing literature on oral corrective feedback. First of all, a quasi-experimental classroom study was carried out to compare the effects of two types of feedback on the accurate oral production and acquisition of the English regular and irregular past simple tense. Two intact classes of intermediate learners at a Spanish university carried out communicative storytelling tasks during which they received either elicitation or metalinguistic feedback on their past tense errors. Both types of feedback were found to impact the acquisition of the target structure positively, but there were some indications that metalinguistic feedback could be more helpful for the immediate repair of students’ errors and could also be more effective for the acquisition of the target structure. Moreover, metalinguistic feedback was found to have larger effects than elicitation on the acquisition of the irregular past tense. This study also indicates that oral corrective feedback, even in an explicit form, can be combined successfully with a communicative focus, since the students responded favourably to the treatment and stated that their confidence and fluency had grown. A second empirical study investigated the feedback practices of 10 adult EFL teachers and compared these to their stated beliefs about error correction, elicited by means of an openended questionnaire. It was found that the most frequently used way of correcting was recasting or reformulating the student’s utterance, which confirms results from previous observational studies. The teachers stated they felt feedback was important, but at the same time they expressed a concern for the promotion of fluency and confidence. It also appears that most teachers are not fully aware of how they correct their students’ spoken errors. Finally, a larger number of teachers and students from an adult EFL and a secondary school context took part in a survey-study which elicited their attitudes to oral corrective feedback. Previous findings that students tend to ask for much more feedback than their teachers believe to be necessary were confirmed in this study. Moreover, the teachers and students also disagreed about the best way of correcting, since the students showed a preference for more explicit types while the teachers were not convinced of the effectiveness of these techniques. Finally, teachers’ preoccupation with possible negative affective reactions to corrective feedback do not appear to be justified based on the results of this survey-study, since the majority of both adult and teenage students stated they rarely or never experience feelings such as embarrassment or inhibition as a result of being corrected when they speak. In conclusion, based on these results it appears that teachers should not be afraid to use more explicit types of feedback, since (1) these were found to be beneficial for the accurate production and acquisition of certain grammatical structures, (2) they seem to be compatible with a communicative focus and (3) they tend to be preferred by students. Esta tesis doctoral se inscribe en el marco de las crecientes investigaciones que muestran que la retroalimentación correctiva oral (oral corrective feedback) es beneficiosa para la adquisición de una segunda lengua y pretende aportar propuestas pedagógicas respecto a los modos en que la retroalimentación correctiva se puede implementar en las aulas comunicativas de idiomas. Con este objetivo, se diseñaron tres estudios empíricos con base en una revisión de la bibliografía publicada sobre la retroalimentación correctiva oral. En primer lugar, se llevó a cabo un estudio cuasi-experimental para comparar los efectos de dos tipos de feedback en la producción oral correcta y la adquisición del past simple regular e irregular en inglés. Para ello, se propuso una actividad de storytelling a dos grupos de alumnos de nivel intermedio de una universidad española; estos alumnos recibieron o bien elicitación (elicitation) o bien retroalimentación metalingüística (metalinguistic feedback) en los errores que cometieron con los verbos en past simple. Si bien estos dos tipos de feedback tuvieron un impacto positivo en la adquisición de la estructura gramatical, se detectaron indicios de que la retroalimentación metalingüística podría ser más eficaz tanto para la reparación inmediata de los errores y como para la adquisición de esta estructura. Además, se constató que los efectos de la retroalimentación metalingüística fueron más importantes que los de la elicitación en la adquisición del pasado irregular. Este estudio también muestra que la retroalimentación correctiva oral, incluso cuando es explicita, puede combinarse con éxito con un enfoque comunicativo, ya que los estudiantes reaccionaron positivamente a las correcciones. En otro estudio empírico se investigaron las prácticas de retroalimentación de 10 profesores de inglés como lengua extranjera para adultos y se compararon estas prácticas con sus creencias sobre la corrección de errores. Se evidenció que la manera más frecuente de corregir los errores de los alumnos era el recurso a recasts o reformulaciones, lo cual confirma los resultados de estudios previos. Los profesores señalaron que la retroalimentación correctiva era, a su juicio, importante, pero al mismo tiempo expresaron su preocupación por la importancia de la fluidez y la seguridad del alumno al hablar una lengua extranjera. Este estudio también parece revelar que la mayor parte de los profesores no es plenamente consciente de las estrategias que adopta al corregir los errores orales de sus alumnos. Finalmente, se diseñó un cuestionario sobre el oral feedback que fue respondido por un número más elevado de profesores y alumnos del contexto de enseñanza del inglés para adultos y de la enseñanza secundaria. Mediante este trabajo se confirmaron los resultados de estudios previos que señalaban que los estudiantes suelen solicitar más correcciones de las que los profesores consideran necesarias. Además, profesores y alumnos tampoco estuvieron de acuerdo respecto al método de corrección que, en su opinión, era el más eficaz: mientras los alumnos preferían las formas de corrección más explicitas, los profesores no estaban convencidos de la eficacia de estas técnicas. Finalmente, no parece estar justificada la preocupación de los profesores por las posibles reacciones negativas que podría desencadenar la corrección de errores, dado que la mayoría de los alumnos afirmaron que nunca o solo raramente se sentían avergonzados o inhibidos cuando el profesor corregía sus errores orales. En conclusión, los resultados obtenidos parecen señalar que los profesores no deberían mostrarse reticentes al uso de técnicas de feedback más explícitas, ya que se comprobó que (i) estas tuvieron efectos positivos en la producción oral y la adquisición de ciertas estructuras gramaticales, (ii) pueden ser compatibles con un enfoque comunicativo y (iii) fueron las técnicas de corrección preferidas por los alumnos encuestados. 2016-05-02T10:47:35Z 2016-05-02T10:47:35Z 2014-05 2014-06-30 info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis https://hdl.handle.net/10171/40462 spa info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Materias Investigacion::Filología y Literatura Enseñanza de lenguas Lingüística aplicada Roothooft, H. (Hanne) Breeze, R. (Ruth) Oral Corrective Feedback: Its effects on the acquisition of English, teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ beliefs |
| title | Oral Corrective Feedback: Its effects on the acquisition of English, teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ beliefs |
| title_full | Oral Corrective Feedback: Its effects on the acquisition of English, teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ beliefs |
| title_fullStr | Oral Corrective Feedback: Its effects on the acquisition of English, teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ beliefs |
| title_full_unstemmed | Oral Corrective Feedback: Its effects on the acquisition of English, teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ beliefs |
| title_short | Oral Corrective Feedback: Its effects on the acquisition of English, teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ beliefs |
| title_sort | oral corrective feedback: its effects on the acquisition of english, teaching practices and teachers’ and students’ beliefs |
| topic | Materias Investigacion::Filología y Literatura Enseñanza de lenguas Lingüística aplicada |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10171/40462 |
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