Abstract
Recent decades have witnessed extensive research focusing on oral corrective feedback (CF), a key aspect of English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) learning and teaching, but relatively little research has examined the relationship between learner and teacher beliefs about CF. The study reported in this article investigated the relationship between teacher and learner beliefs regarding the optimal targets and sources of CF in Vietnamese secondary EFL contexts. Data which were collected at four Vietnamese public high schools included questionnaires completed by 250 students, interviews with 15 of them, and interviews with 24 teachers. The findings showed that the students were happy to receive CF to all types of errors, including less important errors such as those not influencing their communicative success. The teachers were generally more selective in their choices of error types, but they sometimes faced some tensions between their overall teaching objective and the students' practical needs to learn the material that would be tested in subsequent exams. Regarding CF sources, the students preferred teacher correction to self-correction or peer correction although they believed that self-correction was effective for their learning and wished their teachers would provide them with training on how to conduct peer correction and self-correction. The teachers also thought that it was part of their role to be the main CF providers to ensure the accuracy of classroom feedback. Some teachers were skeptical about their students' ability to provide peer CF. Pedagogical implications are discussed.
Highlights
Beliefs are “propositions individuals consider to be true [. . .] which are often tacit, have a strong evaluative and affective component, provide a basis for action, and are resistant to change” (Borg, 2011, p. 370–371)
When asked which types of errors should be prioritized, most of the students reported that frequent errors and errors related to the focus of the lesson were the most important and worthy of correction, as evidenced in the following comments: I think errors related to the lesson focus are the most necessary to be corrected because we need to understand the lesson. (Student 3)
The teachers thought that corrective feedback (CF) targets should be more selective, believing that important errors, especially those related to the lesson focus, should be prioritized
Summary
Beliefs are “propositions individuals consider to be true [. . .] which are often tacit, have a strong evaluative and affective component, provide a basis for action, and are resistant to change” (Borg, 2011, p. 370–371). Teacher beliefs are important because they can influence their classroom behaviors, and understanding teacher beliefs can provide insights into their teaching practices (Kagan, 1992; Borg, 2003, 2015, 2017). Learner beliefs play an important part in facilitating the process and the outcomes of their learning (Ellis, 2008). A match between learner and teacher beliefs can enhance learning efficacy, but a mismatch can have detrimental effects on the learning process and outcomes. According to Ellis (2008), teachers need to “make their own beliefs about language learning explicit, to find out about their students’ beliefs, to help their students become aware of and to evaluate their own beliefs and to address any mismatch between their own and their students’ belief systems” Increasing our understanding of teacher and learner beliefs helps inform teachers’ pedagogical choices to enhance the effectiveness of teaching and learning. The relationship between learner and teacher beliefs about language learning and teaching has received extensive research attention, but research investigating the relationships in beliefs about oral corrective feedback is relatively limited
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