1. Teacher Feedback Anna Martinović University of Zadar
Centre for Foreign Languages
HUPE CONFERENCE 2012
Opatija, Croatia
April 19-22, 2012

2. Outline What is feedback? Types of feedback Corrective feedback When?
How?
Study results
Conclusions

3. What is feedback?

4. Definition
Harmer (2002, 99):
Feedback encompasses not only correcting students, but also offering them an assessment of how well they have done, whether during a drill or after a longer language production exercise.

5. Types of feedback

6. Types of feedback Harmer (2002): Written Oral
- type of feedback depends on the kind of writing task, e.g. controlled tests (grammar), or creative writing (essays, stories)
Oral
- type of feedback depends on stage of lesson, the activity, the type of mistake made, and the individual student who is making the mistake

7. Vigil and Oller (in Brown 2000)
Affective feedback
- can be expressed with
kinesic mechanisms,
e.g. gestures, tone of
voice, facial
expressions
Cognitive feedback
- can be communicated
through linguistic
devices, e.g. sounds,
phrases, structures,
discourse

8. Vigil and Oller (in Brown 2000)
Levels of feedback:
Positive
Negative
Neutral

9. Vigil and Oller (in Brown 2000)
Affective Feedback:
Positive: Keep talking; I’m listening.
Neutral: I’m not sure I want to maintain this conversation.
Negative: This conversation is over.

10. Vigil and Oller (in Brown 2000)
Cognitive Feedback:
Positive: I understand your message; it’s clear.
Neutral: I’m not sure if I correctly understand you or not.
Negative: I don’t understand what you are saying; it’s not clear.

11. Affective and Cognitive feedback

12. Dilemma Too much negative cognitive feedback
- student will not attempt to communicate further
Too much positive cognitive feedback
- letting errors go uncorrected
- reinforces errors
- may result in fossilization of errors

13. Corrective feedback

14. Corrective Feedback
L2 learning takes place by exposure to ‘comprehensible input’
Assumption: L2 learning can also be enhanced by corrective feedback
Gives learners an opportunity to see differences between their own ‘interlanguage’ and the target L2
Restructuring L2 grammar (Ellis, 1994; Gass, 1997)
Enhances metalinguistic awareness (Swain, 1995)

15. Negative evidence gives learners an opportunity to initiate change....
Corrective Feedback
Interaction Hypothesis
‘Negotiation of Meaning’ (Gass & Selinker, 2007)
Negative evidence gives learners an opportunity to initiate change....
Restructuring of linguistic knowledge

16. Corrective Feedback
Mistakes made by students can be divided into three categories (Edge, 1989):
slips - mistakes students can correct themselves
errors - mistakes students cannot correct themselves
attempts - a student tries to say something but does not yet know the correct way of saying it

17. When?

18. Corrective feedback - WHEN?
Brown (2007):
Teacher must discern the optimal tension between positive and negative feedback

19. Corrective feedback - WHEN?
Hendrickson (1980):
Teacher must discern between types of errors.
Global errors - make communication difficult; hearer does not understand some part of the message
Local errors - affect a single element of a sentence; message is understood; context provides keys to meaning

20. Corrective feedback - WHEN?
Harmer (2002):
Depends on focus of the lesson or task
Fluency:
Communicative activities
Role-play, discussions
Accuracy:
Non-communicative activities
Grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary exercises

21. Corrective feedback - WHEN?
Long (in Brown, 2007):
Teacher must decide whether to treat the
error at all.
Factors:
Importance of the error to the pedogogical focus of the lesson
Teacher’s perception of the chance of eliciting correct performance from the student if negative feedback is given
Teacher’s beliefs (conscious or unconscious) about the language and language learning in general

22. Long’s model of the decision-making process prior to the teacher feedback move

23. How?

24. Error treatment Chaudron (in Allwright & Bailey, 2002): Basic options:
To treat or ignore
To treat immediately or to delay
To transfer treatment (to, perhaps, other learners) or not
To transfer to another individual, a subgroup, or the whole class
To return, or not, to original error maker after treatment
To permit other learners to initiate treatment
To test for the efficacy of the treatment

25. Error treatment Chaudron (in Allwright & Bailey, 2002):
Possible Features:
Fact of error indicated
Location indicated
Opportunity for new attempt given
Model provided
Error type indicated
Remedy indicated
Improvement indicated
Praise indicated

26. Chaudron’s Flow chart model of corrective discourse

27. Corrective feedback - HOW?
Categories: Lyster & Ranta (1997):
S: He pass his house.
T: No, we say, ‘He passed his house.’
Explicit correction
The teacher indicates the utterance was incorrect by providing the correct form.

28. Corrective feedback - HOW?
Example 1:
S: Why he want this house?
T: Why does he want this house?
Example 2:
S: What doctor say?
T: What is the doctor saying?

29. Corrective feedback - HOW?
Recasts
The teacher implicitly reformulates the student’s error, or provides the correction, without directly indicating that the student’s utterance was incorrect.

30. Corrective feedback - HOW?
S: Cinde, ah, Cinderella changed into, the beautiful girl. (Laugh) Ah, and, the Cin, Cinderella went to the palace by coach. The, the prince fall in love at first glance.
T: Sorry?
S: Ah, the prince fall in,..., fell in love at first glance...

31. Corrective feedback - HOW?
Clarification request
Teacher uses phrases such as “Excuse me?”, “Sorry?”, or “I don’t understand” to indicate the message has not been understood or that the student’s utterance contained some kind of mistake and that a repetition or reformulation is required.

32. Corrective feedback - HOW?
S: He is tallest than his brother.
T: Do we say ‘tallest’ in the comparative?
Metalinguistic clues
The teacher does not provide the correct form, but asks questions or provides comments or information about the error.

33. Corrective feedback - HOW?
Example 1:
S: We went to the ...ah... ‘dom’ to visit my grandmother...
T: How do we say ‘dom’ in English?
Example 2:
T: Take a look at this picture... It’s a....
Example 3:
S: In the picture we see the dog chase the cat...
T: Say that again...
S: In the picture we see the dog chasing the cat..

34. Corrective feedback - HOW?
Elicitation
The teacher directly elicits the correct form from the student by asking questions, by pausing to allow the student to complete the teacher’s utterance, or by asking students to reformulate the utterance.

35. Corrective feedback - HOW?
Example 1:
S: John goed to town yesterday.
T: John goed to town?”
Repetition
Teacher repeats the student’s error and adjusts intonation (uses rising intonation) to draw student’s attention to it.

36. Corrective feedback - HOW?
Example 2:
S: “This book is hard.”
T: “This book is hard.”
(Meaning ‘You’re right. It is.’)
Repetion by teachers with falling intonation usually affirms correctness
In both rising and falling intonation questions, the teacher usually stresses some element in the repeated form with either meaning.

37. A study

38. A study Martinović & Poljaković (2012) AIM Sample
How does the teacher react to student talk?
Sample
Transcripts of four forty-five minute video-taped sessions of English lessons held by four different teachers at the University of Zadar.
First year Humanities and Social Science students.
Course: English for Specific Purposes.

39. A study Instruments and Procedures Moves
Framework of classroom discourse:
Moves
structuring, soliciting, responding, reacting
Analytical system produced by Bellack et al. (Bellack in Allwright & Bailey, 2002)

40. Study results

41. Results

42. Table 1: Analysis of Teacher Feedback (Total number)

43. Table 2: Analysis of Teacher Feedback (Individual teachers)

44. Discussion

45. Discussion Repetitions Chaudron (1990:145): #1 form of feedback
Teacher gives reinforcement of correct response
Chaudron (1990:145):
“repetitions are among the most common types of corrective feedback”

46. Discussion Accepting responses Implications #2 form of feedback
Teacher shows approval of S response (Alright, Good, Okay...)
Implications
Helps maintain communication
Promotes student self-esteem

47. Discussion Alternative response (explicit correction) Implications
#3 form of feedback:
Teacher provides the correct form
Implications
Excellent students?
Lesson not challenging?

48. Discussion Prompts Implications: ??? #12 form of feedback:
Teacher uses lead-in clue to get S to repeat ut., at point of error – elicitation (It’s a ...)
Implications: ???

49. Conclusion
Use of positive reinforcement through language – positive atmosphere; encouragement of student participation?
Few error repairs – language lesson failed to be challenging enough?
Lack of variety in the use of other forms of feedback i.e. ‘recasts’

50. Conclusion
What factors are involved in the lack of variety of corrective feedback among teachers?
How aware are teachers of different forms of corrective feedback?
Can corrective feedback have a positive influence on long-term L2 learning, that is, L2 acquisition?

51. Questions?

52. Thank you for your attention!