The Effectiveness of Corrective Feedback in Language Learning

Abstract

One of the fundamental issues in EFL education concerns how a teacher can best respond to his/her students’ errors and the extent to which teacher’s feedback may promote students achievement. A significant issue in error correction addresses the types of corrective feedback that will help students to develop and improve language skills. Therefore this study was designed to investigate the effect of teacher’s corrective feedback on student’s achievement on speaking skills. The data was collected through pre and posttests and observations, which served as the basis of the study. The purpose of the pre and post tests and observations was to find out the type and frequency of corrective feedback that teachers use in their classroom.The research was conducted in the Experimental English classes (EEC) in the Department of English Programs (DEP). The aim of experiment was to investigate the impact of the corrective feedback on students learning in Experimental English Classes. Two groups of students were given a pretest(oral proficiency test) to assure their proficiency level before the treatment. Then the group received its respective treatment. One group received immediate feedback and the other group delayed feedback. At the end of the experiment the participants were given a posttest in order to measure the effects of the feedback techniques. The statistical data analysis suggests that there was same change in scores over time for the two different groups, and there was no significant difference between the effectiveness of immediate and delayed methods, though both of these methods (immediate and delayed) caused significant and positive change in speaking test scores across the two different time periods. The analysis of observation showed that recastwas the most frequently used type of feedbackin the Armenian EFL classroom.