Abstract
The linguistic scrutiny of any aspect of pragmatics is bound to considering carefully the context in which it is expressed. This becomes very glaring when the utterances that constitute discourse are viewed as performing social actions. In an EFL context like Iran, English language learners are in urgent need of raising their pragmatic awareness as they do not have regular access to an environment where the main language of communication is English. The major context for improving their pragmatic competence could be classroom. Thus, teachers need to cope with this issue which makes knowledge of speech acts more worthy of being dealt with. This research was an attempt to find out the effect of teacher’s group feedback versus individual feedback on Iranian EFL learners’ uptake of speech acts. To carry out the study, 32 pre-intermediate learners were chosen to take part based on convenient sampling through non-random grouping. To make sure that the learners were homogeneous, a Quick Placement Test (QPT) was administered before the treatment. Based on the design of the study, the learners were divided into two treatment conditions of individual and group feedback. The research was a quasi-experimental a pretest and a posttest of writing before and after the treatment to measure students’ uptake of speech acts. Results of two paired-samples t-test and an independent samples t-test showed significant effect of individual feedback on learners’ uptake of speech acts, while group feedback was not significant. It was also found that there was a significant difference between the effects of teacher feedback in groups vs. teacher feedback given to individual learners. The present research has significant implications. Tests can also focus more on promoting individual feedback among learners and teachers in washback effect. Teachers can also make principled decisions about the feedback condition that best boost leaner uptake in speech act.
Highlights
The development of learners’ communicative competence in a second and foreign language has been the major concerns for teaching professionals
Errors of appropriacy may have more negative consequence than grammatical errors since the earlier errors may characterize the non-native speaker as being uncooperative, rude and offensive (Crandall & Basturkmen, 2004). When it comes to real-life situations, many second/foreign language learners appear to fail in displaying pragmatic competence and the case is even true for proficient language learners (DeCapua & Dunham, 2007; Hinkel, 1997; Martínez Flor, 2005; Pishghadam & Sharafaddini, 2011)
The effect of teacher feedback given to individual learners on their uptake of speech acts The first research question was aimed at finding if individual teacher feedback has a significant effect on the EFL learners’ uptake of speech acts
Summary
The development of learners’ communicative competence in a second and foreign language has been the major concerns for teaching professionals. Previous research on feedback in second language writing have largely focused on the impact of feedback on grammatical accuracy (Chandler, 2003; Ferris & Roberts, 2001) and on form and/or content (Ashwell, 2000; Fazio, 2001) revealing the very fact that second language writing research have drawn largely on research on oral feedback and types of written feedback It can be concluded from research on written corrective feedback that the presence of feedback seems to enhance learners’ accuracy and fluency. One limitation of much of research on feedback in second language writing is the fact that they artificially separate either feedback focusing on given forms (e.g., nouns or sentence structure) or selected feedback types (e.g., coding, circling, or error description) This limitation causes difficulty in understanding the efficacy of a variety of feedback techniques (Ellis, 2009; Hyland & Hyland, 2006)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
