The Role of Corrective Feedback in Second Language Learning

1. The Role of Corrective Feedback (CF)
in Second Language Learning
Presented by:
Amir Hamid Forough Ameri
ahfameri@gmail.com
December 2015

2. Introduction
Corrective feedback (CF) takes the form of responses to learner
utterances containing an error.
It happens in reactive episodes consisting of
 a trigger
 feedback move
 uptake (optional)

3. Introduction
Student: I went to the train station and pick up my aunt. = trigger
Teacher: use past tense consistently. = feedback move (overt; metalinguistic)
(Teacher: Oh, you picked up your aunt. = Covert)
Student: I went to the train station and picked up my aunt. = uptake
Corrective feedback supplies learners with both negative and
positive evidence.
 Here the teacher signals that sth is incorrect (negative evidence), but:
 Teacher: use the past tense – you must say picked up. (positive evidence)

4. Introduction
Definitions of four concepts:
 Positive evidence +
 Negative evidence -
 Feedback
 Error correction
Leeman (2007): feedback is the mechanism by which linguistic
information (evidence) is provided to a learner.

5. Introduction
The mechanism can either be:
 positive feedback = the process of communication was a success or
 Negative feedback = the process of communication was a failure.
From this, learners extract evidence:
 positive evidence = the utterance was acceptable
 Negative evidence = the utterance was unacceptable

6. Introduction
Feedback: a reaction to a learner utterance
Evidence: provided at any stage of an interaction
Error correction:
 a pedagogical activity of providing feedback for learner errors
 a general and somehow outdated term
 a one-dimensional account of the feedback process
 No distinction is made between type of feedback and evidence
 H. D. Brown prefers the term Error Treatment.

7. Corrective Feedback in SLA
Theoretical Positions
1. Universal grammar-based accounts of CF
 UG is based on the poverty of the stimulus argument
Input learners are exposed to is insufficient
UG is needed
Here, input is believed to provide learners with only positive evidence

8. Corrective Feedback in SLA
However, input can also provide negative evidence through CF.
White: negative evidence can trigger UG principles and may be
necessary.
Schwarts & Krashen: negative evidence only results in explicit
knowledge, and has no role in UG-based acquisition (a theory of how
learners acquire implicit knowledge).
Carroll (2001): negative evidence can play a role in certain stages of
L2 development but not others.

9. Corrective Feedback in SLA
Carroll (2001):
Beginning stages of L2 learning: Negative evidence isn’t interpretable
learners lack metalinguistic awareness
Intermediate stages: Negative evidence might be usable
Advanced stages: Negative evidence plays no role
Learners are not typically corrected

10. Corrective Feedback in SLA
2. Cognitive-interactionist accounts of CF
CF is likely to help acquisition when learners’ focus is on meaning in
the context of communication.
 CF contributes to acquisition not just learning.
Correcting learners activates the cognitive mechanisms involved in
intake, rehearsal, restructuring (fostering interlanguage development)
 Cognitive-interactionist accounts of CF have addressed the role
of oral CF.

11. Corrective Feedback in SLA
CF can be useful in two ways:
1. Providing learners with positive evidence:
T: When were you in school?
L: Yes, I stand in the first row? (trigger)
T: Oh, you stood in the first row. (Corrective move, a recast)
L: Yes, in the first row.
Cognitive process: noticing the correction→ a cognitive comparison
between his/her error and target-like input.

12. Corrective Feedback in SLA
2. Pushing learners to self-correct:
S: Why does he fly to Korea last year?
T: Pardon? (a clarification request; a prompt)
S: Why did he fly to Korea last year? (Uptake)
 the effectiveness of these two types of CF (Providing learners with
positive evidence versus Pushing learners to self-correct) is
controversial.

13. Corrective Feedback in SLA
It is possible to combine prompts and recasts: ‘Corrective Recasts’
L: He go to the bank every day.
T: He go to the bank every day? (repetition)
L: (no response)
T: He goes to the bank every day. (recast)
L: He goes to the bank every day.

14. Corrective Feedback in SLA
3. Sociocultural theory and CF
CF affords learners opportunities to collaboratively produce new
linguistic forms.
Learning occurs in rather than as a result of interaction.
Correction isn’t sth done to learners but sth carried out with learners.
CF enables the joint construction of ZPD.
Key claim: CF needs to be graduated: providing the learner with the
minimum level of assistance needed for self-correction.

15. Types of Corrective Feedback
CF:
 Oral
 Written
These two can be applied in two ways:
Focused: the teacher chooses to correct just one or a few of the errors
(relating to a specific linguistic feature)
Unfocused: the teacher corrects all or most of the learners’ errors

16. Types of Corrective Feedback
Oral CF
1. Explicit correction: the teacher clearly indicates what the student
said was incorrect providing the correct form.
1.1 Metalinguistic Feedback: using metalinguistic terminology
1.2 Utterance Rejections: ‘’No, that is incorrect’’
L: he kiss her.
T: kiss—you need past tense.
L: he kissed her.

17. Types of Corrective Feedback
2. Recasts: teacher reformulates all or part of the student’s utterance
replacing the erroneous part with the correct target language form,
where the focus is on meaning:
L: In the bedroom book is on shef. (mispronunciation & grammatical error)
T: On the shelf. = recast
L: On the shelf, yes OK. = modified output

18. Types of Corrective Feedback
Recasts were first investigated in the field of L1 acquisition.
Saxton’s Direct Contrast Hypothesis:
Juxtaposition of child’s initial erroneous utterance and adult’s target-
like reformulation can help the child notice the difference between the
two forms and finally reject the former.

19. Types of Corrective Feedback
A number of L2 researchers believe that recasts are a very effective
form of feedback as they:
Provide positive input
Offer negative feedback
Facilitate learners’ noticing of the difference between their erroneous
utterance and adult’s target-like reformulation
Facilitate learner understanding
Encourage learners to pay attention to the feedback

20. Types of Corrective Feedback
Characteristics of recast
corrective recasts: an other-repetition precedes recast
1. Multi-move recasts repeated recasts: a recast repeated partially or fully
combination recasts: a recast used with other
corrective strategy
2. Single-move recasts
A: Mode: declarative or interrogative?

21. Types of Corrective Feedback
B: Scope: the extent to which recast differs from learner’s utterance
a: isolated: reformulation with no new information added
b: incorporated: reformulation with additional semantic content
C: Reduction (or non-reduction): reformulation is or is not shorter than
the learner’s original utterance.
D: Length: a recast can consist of a single word, a short or long phrase,
or a clause.
E: Number of changes: a single change or more than one change

22. Types of Corrective Feedback
F: Type of change:
a: addition
b: substitution
c: reordering
d: deletion
e: a combination of the above types
G: Linguistic focus: a recast can correct
a: pronunciation b: vocab c: grammar

23. Types of Corrective Feedback
Example: A single-move recast:
S: I think she’ll travel together her cousin.
T: I think she’ll travel together with her cousin.
Mode = declarative scope: isolated
Reduction = non-reduced length: clause
Number of changes = one type of change: addition
Linguistic focus = grammar

24. Types of Corrective Feedback
3. Clarification requests (a kind of prompt):
The teacher indicates that a learner utterance has been misunderstood
or is ill-formed, inviting the learner to self-correct, but not providing the
correct form.
S: When I get to Paris, I’ m going to sleep for one whole day
T: What? (Pardon me? I’m sorry?)

25. Types of Corrective Feedback
Lyster outlines four types of prompts:
1. Clarification requests
2. Repetitions of incorrect form
3. Metalinguistic clues
4. elicitations

26. Types of Corrective Feedback
4. Metalinguistic comments (feedback)
The teacher comments on or questions the well-formedness of the
learner’s utterance without explicitly providing the correct form.
S: My dad job is a clerk.
T: Is that how you would say it in English?

27. Types of Corrective Feedback
5. Elicitation:
The teacher 1) elicits completion of his own utterance, 2) uses a
question to elicit the correct form, and 3) asks a student to reformulate
his utterance.
S: (to another student) What means this word?
T: Uh, Jack, how do we say that in English? What does …?
S: Ah, what does this word mean?

28. Types of Corrective Feedback
6. Repetition:
The teacher repeats the student’s erroneous utterance with or without
emphasis on the erroneous part, usually with a change in intonation:
S: When I have 12 years old….
T: When I have 12 years old….

29. Types of Corrective Feedback
7. Confirmation Check:
 An utterance immediately following the previous speaker’s utterance
intended to confirm that the utterance was understood.
S: Mexican food have a lot of ulcers.
T: Mexicans have a lot of ulcers?

30. Written CF
Three basic strategies:
1. Direct CF
2. Indirect CF
3. Metalinguistic CF
In all of these teachers focus only on the erroneous parts

32. Classification of CF Strategies
In the 1970s and 1980s cognitive psychologists distinguished:
1. Explicit learning as being with awareness
2. Implicit learning as being without awareness
Feedback has also been identified as
Explicit = indicating a problem in the utterance with a focus on form
Can interrupt the flow of interaction
Implicit=indicating a problem in the utterance with a focus on meaning
Allows for the interaction to continue uninterrupted

33. Classification of CF Strategies
Mackey (2012)
Implicit Explicit
Negative Evidence Focus on meaning,
with a non-overt
correction
Focus on form, with
an overt correction
Positive Evidence Focus on meaning,
with a non-overt
repetition
Focus on form, with
an overt validation

34. Classification of CF Strategies
Ellis and Shintani (2014):
 Input-providing: providing learners with input reflecting target language norms
 Output-prompting: indicating that an error has been made but don’t supply the
correct forms, encouraging learners to try to self-correct.
Implicit Explicit
Input-providing recasts Explicit correction
Output-prompting Repetitions
Clarification requests
Confirmation checks
Metalinguistic comments
Elicitation

35. Guidelines for Conducting CF
 CF serves as a major way teachers can focus on form.
 Teachers shouldn’t be afraid to correct errors
 Cognitive advantages of CF outweigh possible affective disadvantages
 Both errors and mistakes need correcting.
 Both local and global errors should be corrected.
 The effectiveness of CF depends on learners’ readiness to acquire the
feature.
 CF is beneficial in both accuracy-based and fluency-based work.

36. Guidelines for Conducting CF
Both immediate and delayed CF may be beneficial. Neither is
superior.
Learners need to know they are being corrected.
There is no ‘best’ way of oral CF.
However, opportunities of self-correction followed by (if necessary)
teacher correction is recommended.
In written CF, direct correction is more effective than indirect.
Leaving time for learner uptake (in writing, revision) can assist
learning.

37. References
 Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching (5th ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
 Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 Ellis, R., & Shintani, N. (2014). Exploring language pedagogy through second language acquisition research.
Oxon: Routledge.
 Mackey, A. (2012). Input, interaction, and corrective feedback in L2 learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 Mitchell, R., Myles, F., & Marsden, E. (2013). Second language learning theories (3rd ed.). Oxon: Routledge.
 Ortega. L. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. London: Hodder Education.
 Rassaei, E., & Moinzadeh, A. (2011). Investigating the effects of three types of corrective feedback on the
 acquisition of English wh-question forms by Iranian EFL learners. English Language Teaching, 4, 97-106.
 Rezaei, S., & Mozaffari, F. (2011). Corrective feedback in SLA: Classroom practice and future directions.
International Journal of English Linguistics, 1, 21-29.
 Internet References