Changes in orientations among pre-service EFL teachers’ correction practices: From teaching materials to underlying knowledge structures

Abstract

This article focuses on how the correction practices of pre-service teachers change over a one-year period. This multimodal, longitudinal conversation analytic study is based on recordings of 22 EFL (English as a foreign language) classes taught by two pre-service teachers in lower secondary schools during their initial and final school placements. Several changes in the correction practices were observed in the final school placements: the pre-service teachers (1) used teacher-initiated student self-correction more frequently, (2) displayed no verbal orientation and less visual orientation to the teaching material, and (3) engaged more in clueing and pointing at inscriptions on the board. These findings document a shift from a rather mechanistic orientation to the teaching materials during the initial school placement to an orientation to the underlying structures and knowledge, and thus student understanding, during their final school placements.