Noticing and bridging the gap: use and effect of corrective feedback in the foreign language classroom

This PhD thesis arises from the lack of an in-depth study about Corrective Feedback (CF) in the Foreign Language (FL) classroom in Portugal. The research reported in this thesis, which is part of the field of linguistics and language teaching, aimed at investigating learners and teachers’ beliefs on oral CF, the several types of CF provided by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and the effects of CF on the learners’ linguistic knowledge. The present research seeks to provide a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge regarding the role of CF in EFL teaching and learning, thereby informing pedagogical practices in the EFL classroom. The experimental study comprised three stages: (i) a questionnaire-based study of learners and teachers’ perceptions on the provision of oral CF, including necessity and frequency of error correction, timing of error correction, types of errors and their correction, effectiveness of CF strategies, and delivering agent; (ii) an observation of the CF strategies provided by teachers, and (iii) a classroom-based study on the effects of CF strategies – explicit correction, recast and prompts – on the acquisition of regular and irregular English past tense. The participants were 166 9th grade EFL learners studying in a Portuguese state school and their five teachers, who were assigned to a treatment condition that fit their style. During the instructional period, which had the duration of four weeks, CF was provided to learners in response to their oral production errors concerning the Past Simple. A control group was included. The study employed a quasiexperimental design, with a pretest, instructional period, immediate posttest and delayed posttest. Two tasks were used: a Picture Description Task (PDT) and a Grammaticality Judgment Task (GJT). Results from research stage 1 showed that both learners and teachers believe in the importance of CF, but learners prefer immediate correction, while teachers favor the provision of CF after the learner’s turn. Both groups believe that the errors that interfere with communication, grammar and vocabulary errors are the ones that should most often be corrected. The most effective CF types are, for learners, explicit corrections and recasts, and, for teachers, recasts and prompts. Learners regard the teacher as the main delivering agent of CF, followed by self-correction. Teachers favor self-correction, provide CF themselves and resort to peer correction. Research stage 2 revealed that teachers correct most of their students’ mistakes. When considering the total CF moves, recast was the most provided strategy, followed by prompts. Results from the two tasks implemented in research stage 3 revealed that: the prompt group made the most significant improvement across test periods in the PDT and the GJT, particularly regarding the production of regular and irregular past tense forms in the PDT, and the judgment of sentences containing irregular past tense forms and ungrammatical items in the GJT. The explicit correction and the recast groups improved their accuracy scores in the production of irregular verbs in the PDT from the pretest to posttest 1, but the gains did not reach statistical significance. There was a moderate improvement in the explicit correction group regarding the judgment of sentences containing irregular verbs and the judgment of sentences containing ungrammatical items in the GJT, but it did not reach statistical significance. In conclusion, the findings underscore the instrumental role of CF in the FL classroom, acknowledged by both students in their belief questionnaire and teachers in their belief questionnaire and teaching practice. The results suggest that explicit corrections, prompts and recasts potentially have differential effects on improving accuracy in the use of past tense forms. Theoretical explanations for the findings are discussed alongside tentative pedagogical implications and potential avenues for future research.