Corrective feedback and learner uptake in communicative classrooms across instructional settings

Abstract

This paper reports similarities and differences in teachers’ corrective feedback and learners’ uptake across instructional settings. Four communicative classroom settings - French Immersion, Canada ESL, New Zealand ESL and Korean EFL - were examined using Lyster and Ranta’s taxonomy of teachers’ corrective feedback moves and learner uptake. The results indicate that recasts were the most frequent feedback type in all four contexts but were much more frequent in the Korean EFL and New Zealand ESL classrooms (83% and 68%, respectively) than in the Canadian Immersion and ESL classrooms (55% for both). Also, the rates for both uptake and repair following recasts were greater in the New Zealand and Korean settings than in the Canadian contexts. The findings of this study suggest that the extent to which recasts lead to learner uptake and repair may be greater in contexts where the focus of the recasts is more salient, as with reduced/partial recasts, and where students are oriented to attending to linguistic form rather than meaning. The study underscores the importance of considering the influence of context on corrective feedback and learner uptake.