TheEffectivenessofCorrectiveFeedbackinEFLLearninginChina

【Abstract】It is known that corrective feedback is effective in developing English learners interlanguage.Therefore，it is meaningful to discuss the effectiveness of corrective feedback in the context of EFL in China and to find instructive ways in the classroom implication.

【Key words】Corrective；feedback；EFL

Corrective feedback （CF） in second language learning means the form of interlocutors responses to language learners utterances which include an error.（Ellis 2009）.The effectiveness of corrective feedback in L2 development has been investigated in both the empirical research and classroom studies.It is acknowledged that CF is effective to develop learnersinterlanguage； and therefore meaningful for language teachers pedagogical implication （Li 2012）.

Corrective feedback might be categorized into implicit feedback and explicit feedback.In giving implicit feedback，there is no obvious signal to indicate an error which has been made in utterance； while the situation in presenting explicit feedback is on the contrary.（Ellis 2009） As for the explicit feedback，it indicates that an error has been committed.

The effectiveness of different types of CF：implicit feedback versus explicit feedback，and recast versus prompts would be discussed.As for implicit （e.g.recasts） feedback versus explicit feedback，explicit feedback is more effective than implicit feedback，especially in the classroom context.According to Lyster（1998），immersion classrooms studies in different instructional contexts，explicit feedback shows a higher level of repair in uptake than recasts.The high degree of repair might lead to the language internalizing.With regard to the effect of input-providing feedback （recasts） and output-prompting feedback，Yang and Lyster （2010）s quasi-experimental study （on Chinese EFL university learners learning regular/irregular English past tense in FFI），shows that the prompt is more effective than the recast for it is beneficial for self-repair.

As an English teacher in China，it is necessary to discuss how to relate different types of CF into Chinese EFL classrooms with the purpose of promoting learners English acquisition.As for the Chinese EFL classroom，it is featured with a large class with about 50 students.To some degree，it influences the effectiveness of CF on language learning for the frequency of CF on an individual student is greatly reduced.Meanwhile，the learning instruction is more form-oriented than meaning-oriented which is not helpful to develop learners communicative competency （Yang and Lyster 2010）.Apart from these limitations，EFL learners have recognized the effectiveness of CF which is given by their teacher，to some extent.（Littlewood 2010）.As for the students preference on learning instruction，Chinese EFL learners show their preference on communicative language teaching which contains meaning-focused instruction （Littlewood 2010）.Bearing these limitations and opportunities within the Chinese EFL context，it might be feasible to conduct varied types of CF as follows：

Firstly，the varied types of CF would be engaged within an integrated instruction-both focus-on-form and focus-on-meaning which might meet the need to improve the communicative ability.Since Chinese EFL students prefer the communicative language teaching to the focus-on-form instruction（Littlewood 2010），some communicative activities（e.g.information gap） would be conducted between the teacher and students； at the same time，the teacher would apply some types of CF （i.e.elicitation，clarification requests） in the conversation which aims at the target form and the meaning.In this respect，prompts would be more practical to serve the purpose of keeping the conversation flow and paying attention to the target form.

Secondly，the different types of CF would be applied with different students in the classroom.As students different proficiency levels and language aptitude would influence the effectiveness of CF.Therefore，the more capable students would receive more gain given by the explicit feedback （Ellis.2009）； while the less capable student would benefit more from prompts.

Thirdly，the varied types of feedback would be engaged with different teaching targets.For example，recasts would be applied widely in the pronunciation and vocabulary teaching，because recasts are more noticeable for students to correcting phonological errors and lexical errors than grammar errors （Yang and Lyster 2010）.Besides，to recast a single error relating to the target form is much better than targeting many errors at one time.

Corrective feedback has an effective role in language learning for it not only offers essential language input which triggers the leaner to notice the gap between his/her ill-form utterance and interlocutors well-formed utterance，but also provides a corrective force which requires the learner to reform the non-target like language.Therefore，taking advantage of the effectiveness of corrective feedback in language learning，varied types of corrective feedback would be applied in the process of language learning.Given the limitations and opportunities in Chinese EFL context，effective CF could be done by teacher-student interactions.With the integrated instruction：focus-on-form and focus-on-meaning，corrective feedback，especially prompts，would be used to push the communicative flow and keep the accuracy.Besides，the different types of CF should be used by considering different students level； as low proficiency level students might get more benefits from prompts than recasts.

In a word，corrective feedback plays a significant role in internalizing language and developing language learning as well as facilitating language teaching.

Reference：

[1]Ellis，R，Implicit and explicit knowledge in second language learning，testing and teaching，Bristol：Multilingual Matters，2009.

[2]Li，S，The Effectiveness of Corrective Feedback in SLA：A Meta-Analysis'，Language Learning，60（2），309-365，2010.

[3]Littlewood，W，‘Chinese and Japanese StudentsConceptions of the ‘Ideal English Lesson'，RELC Journal，41（1），46-58，2010.

[4]Lyster，R，‘Negotiation of Form，Recasts，and Explicit Correction in Relation to Error Types and Learner Repair in Immersion Classrooms'，Language Learning，48（2），183-218，1998.

[5]Yang，Y.and Lyster，R，'Effects of Form-Focused Practice and Feedback on Chinese EFL learnersAcquisition of Regular and Irregular Past Tense Forms'，Studies in Second Language Acquisition，32（2），235-263，2010.

作者簡介：

孫瑜（1988.3～），女，天津人，陜西科技大學鎬京學院，助教，學歷（2012級 碩士）研究方向：對外英語教育。