Language teachers' perceptions of oral error corrections; Why do they correct the way they do?s

Abstract

Previous studies investigating methods of providing oral corrective feedback (OCF) have found that ‘recasting’ is the most frequently used, though learners are usually less aware of it compared to other forms. Most studies on OCF have been carried out in contexts with adult learners in classrooms with relatively communicative aims where recasts have been used to maintain the flow of communication and reduce the anxiety that more direct OCFs can cause, with little focus placed on the role of the teacher in the selection of the form of OCF used. Thus, the frequency of use of recasting as an OCF method in less communicative contexts with adolescent school learners is poorly understood, as well as teachers’ motivation for providing different forms of OCF. The current study aimed to better understand teachers by investigating their perceptions and use of different types of OCF in the Saudi secondary school context, where sustaining communicative interaction and reducing explicit correction are not as prioritised as explicitly focussing on form, rules, and translation.

Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Qualitatively, 10 teachers participated in one-to-one interviews, a total of 100 hours of systematic, audio-recorded observation; and 100 stimulated recall (SR) sessions; quantitatively, 207 teacher questionnaires were collected from teachers throughout Saudi Arabia. These methods allowed for an in-depth exploration of the teachers' perceptions and behaviours in use of OCF.

Recasting was found to be the most commonly used OCF in this context, despite the differences in the instructional goals (e.g. less communicative aims). It appears that in this foreign language (FL) context, the general patterns of OCF were not wildly different to those found in other, more communicatively-oriented contexts investigated to date, yet the teachers’ justifications for their use of OCF may be different. The study concluded with some recommendations for FL teachers practice.