The Effect of Two Types of Feedback on Iranian EFL Learners' Tense-marker Production

Somayeh Kazemi Tari

doi:10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.108

Somayeh Kazemi Tari

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.2n.1p.108

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Abstract

Although many researchers have worked on the role of feedback in immersion programs on second language learners' production, still little is known about the role of different types of immediate feedback on the grammatical accuracy of learners' production. When, where and with who different types of immediate feedback such as prompts and recasts and their different subcategories might be appropriate? The purpose of the present research was to know which types of immediate oral feedback could better help Iranian EFL learners to produce the correct form of the tense markers of their target language English. One of the primary objectives of the present study was to examine the effects of two types of oral feedback namely explicit correction and implicit or-choice feedback on Iranian EFL learners' production of different tense markers in English. The results were in favor of explicit correction over implicit or-choice feedback in helping learners to produce correct grammatical tense markers.

Highlights

The use of feedback in language teaching is nothing new
Interlanguage researchers argue that errors should be tolerated as much as they are the result of the learner's communicative strategies
Research questions This study aims to test the effect of two types of feedback, which are hypothesized to trigger different degrees of cognitive processing and awareness

Summary

Introduction

The use of feedback in language teaching is nothing new. Traditional language teachers immediately corrected their students' errors when they appeared in their utterances. There are different views regarding the use of different types of feedback. Interlanguage researchers argue that errors should be tolerated as much as they are the result of the learner's communicative strategies. Another view is that errors should be ignored on the whole. Still another view is that some types of errors should be corrected. Ellis (1990) provides taxonomy of the type of errors that should be corrected by the teacher. According to Ellis (1990, pp. 5455), global errors, errors that affect the overall comprehensibility of an utterance, stigmatized errors, and errors relating to the learner's stage of development should be corrected

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Results