Teachers’ feedback to learners’ errors: A focus on level of proficiency

• Autores: Cristina Iserte Iserte
• Localización: Fòrum de Recerca, ISSN-e 1139-5486, Nº. 25, 2020, págs. 71-72
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • As one of the theoretical conditions for language learning, feedback plays a key role in the English-as-a-Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. At any level, language learners make errors as part of their learning process. In this paper, we focused on oral feedback provided by teachers to their learners’ errors at different levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). In addition, we also analyzed students’ reaction to teachers’ feedback, that is, uptake, in order to ascertain whether feedback was effective. Our results showed that lexical mistakes accounted for the vast majority of errors across levels, and that over 80% of feedback was provided by the teacher.

    As for the type of feedback provided, recasts were mainly used at advanced level, followed by peer feedback and clarification request.

    Intermediate learners also received recasts in the first place, and then explicit correction. Similarly, beginner learners obtained recasts followed by translation of the problematic language forms. In regards to uptake, repetition was the most used type after feedback across levels, that is, the learners repeated the teacher’s feedback, followed by acknowledgement and no uptake. In light of these findings, we may claim that a similar pattern emerges both as for the most common type of feedback (recast) and uptake (repetition), thus corroborating previous research on this field of enquiry which shows that feedback may be conducive to language learning and its provision is an essential task for EFL teachers.