Chilean Graders’ Behaviors and Perceptions of a Foreign Language Reschooling Program Towards Verbal Feedback on Pronunciation

Abstract

This research study aims to provide graders of an EFL reschooling program with individual verbal feedback and analyze their behaviors and perceptions towards the intervention. This study follows an action research design conducted during three sessions in which 28 secondary school students had a dialogue with the teacher who commented on their pronunciation issues and provided with strategies in order to help them deal successfully with pronunciation issues. A field note and a semi-structured interview were used to collect data. The field note was used during the dialogue to observe students’ behavior towards the feedback; the semi-structured interview was implemented after the intervention in order to describe their perceptions towards the methodology and its effect on their learning process. Thematic analysis was used to identify certain patterns of meanings; the analysis showed findings leading to the conclusion that students felt more comfortable when facing speaking activities because of the practice and repetition during the individual verbal feedback stage. Future studies could include peer feedback, because this verbal feedback may be enhanced if students work in pairs. This type of strategy may favor discussion and clarification of doubts.