When supporting students’ language development, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers use different scaffolding methods, such as Oral Corrective Feedback (OCF). This method’s purpose is to assist learners’ oral language skills, and there are various strategies that can be utilised in an input providing or output prompting manner. The aim of this study is to investigate Swedish EFL teachers in K-3 regarding their preferences for OCF strategies, the challenges they face in implementing these strategies, as well as adapting them to their teaching context. In order to examine this phenomenon, data was collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with teachers as participants. The results indicate that Recast is the most prevalent approach, whereas output prompting strategies pose the greatest difficulty for teachers. One of the output prompting strategies that were frequently mentioned as the least preferred was Metalinguistic Feedback. Moreover, teachers tend to adapt their OCF strategies and sometimes even choosing to not correct their students at all, depending onthe learning context and the individual student attributes. In comparison to previous studies conducted in other countries, different strategies were preferred such as Explicit Correction, which teachers in Sweden tend to refrain from using. However, the beliefs regarding output prompting OCF strategies were similar. Overall, teachers believe that providing OCF is an effective method for scaffolding young learners’ language development in the EFL classroom.

Studies have shown that accuracy of L2 writing is improved when teachers employ direct corrective feedback (CF). Less is known about the benefits of adding some form of metalinguistic explanation to the focused direct CF. In this study, thirty-six grade nine students from two different schools in Sweden completed two sets of written tasks, one week apart. All of the students’ work was corrected using focused direct CF, with only one linguistic feature (the accurate use of the present simple and the present continuous) being the primary focus. Some of the students also received an oral metalinguistic explanation in the form of a class lecture, while others received a written, personalised metalinguistic explanation. Eleven students were subsequently interviewed.The study showed that all of the students appreciated the CF that they received and the vast majority thought that it had helped them, even if their results did not reflect this. The students who received focused direct corrective feedback with an oral explanation in the form of a class lecture showed the most consistent improvement overall.

Corrective feedback (CF) is regarded as a controversial topic when it comes to writing in the L2 classroom. Some researchers have found it to be both meaningless and harmful, while others have researched the effects of different types of CF and found it to be good for language development in several ways. This made us interested in conducting a study focusing on what attitudes grade 3-5 (age 9-11) teachers have concerning CF, and if they themselves use it for their L2 students’ writing. The study was conducted through five semi-structured interviews with teachers working in Lund, Sweden. The aim of the study was to investigate compulsory school teachers’ experiences of and thoughts on CF as a teaching method for improving young L2 learners’ writing. The results revealed that the teachers believe CF to be an irreplaceable part of language learning but that it should be adapted to each individual’s needs. Although all interviewed teachers acknowledged CF’s potential harm on learners’ motivation and willingness to write, no one believed that it could be left out completely.

This study aims to expand on the existing research regarding teachers’ oral feedback practices in third turns of initiation-response-feedback (IRF) sequences. There is a gap in the existing research on oral corrective feedback practices in third turns of IRF sequences in the context of Swedish upper secondary school. The aim of this study is to fill some of that gap by providing results and insights from the Swedish context of upper secondary school. A classroom audio recording of a teacher’s classroom talk from an English class with second year students was subjected to conversation analysis to discover general patterns of this teacher’s oral corrective feedback practices in the third turn of IRF sequences. It emerged that implicit corrective feedback practices were frequent, with conversational recasts being among the most common types of feedback. The result of this study thus turned out to be in line with what previous research had found to be common oral corrective feedback practices among teachers.

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L’objectif de cette étude qualitative est de décrire et de comprendre le processus décisionnel sous-jacent à la rétroaction corrective d’un enseignant de langue seconde à l’oral. Pour ce faire, elle décrit les principaux facteurs qui influencent la décision de procéder à une rétroaction corrective ainsi que ceux qui sous-tendent le choix d’une technique de rétroaction particulière. Trois enseignantes de français langue seconde auprès d’un public d’adultes immigrants au Canada ont participé à cette recherche. Des séquences complètes d’enseignement ont été filmées puis présentées aux participantes qui ont commenté leur pratique. L’entretien de verbalisation s’est effectué sous la forme d’un rappel stimulé et d’une entrevue. Cet entretien constitue les données de cette étude. Les résultats ont révélé que la rétroaction corrective ainsi que le choix de la technique employée étaient influencés par des facteurs relatifs à l’erreur, à l’apprenant, au curriculum, à l’enseignant et aux caractéristiques des techniques. Ils ont également révélé que l’apprenant est au cœur du processus décisionnel rétroactif des enseignants de langue seconde. En effet, les participantes ont affirmé vouloir s’adapter à son fonctionnement cognitif, à son état affectif, à son niveau de langue et à la récurrence de ses erreurs. L’objectif de cette étude est d’enrichir le domaine de la formation initiale et continue des enseignants de L2. Pour cela, des implications pédagogiques ont été envisagées et la recommandation a été faite de porter à la connaissance des enseignants de L2 les résultats des recherches sur l’efficacité des techniques de rétroaction corrective, particulièrement celles qui prennent en compte les caractéristiques des apprenants. / The aim of this qualitative study is to describe and understand the underlying decision-making process in the oral corrective feedback of a second language teacher. More specifically, this study describes the main factors which influence the decision to proceed to a corrective feedback as well as those which underlie the choice of a specific feedback technique. Three teachers of French as a second language, with adult immigrants in Canada, participated in this research. Entire teaching sequences were filmed and then presented to participants who commented on their practices. The comments were made in the form of a stimulated recall and an interview. These constitute the data of this research. Results revealed that the corrective feedback and the choice of the technique were influenced by factors related to the error, to the learner, to the curriculum, to the teacher and to the characteristics of corrective feedback techniques. They also revealed that the learner is at the center of the retroactive decision making of the second language teachers. Indeed, participants said that they want to adapt to the learner’s cognitive functioning, to his emotional state, to his language level and to the recurrence of his mistakes. The goal of this study is to contribute to the initial and continuous training of L2 teachers. For this purpose, pedagogical implications were proposed and recommendations were made specifically to notify the L2 teachers about the results of the research regarding the efficiency of the techniques of corrective feedback, particularly those ones which take into account the characteristics of the learners.

Esta tese destaca a importância do feedback corretivo imediato nos softwares didáticos de ensino linguístico em âmbito acadêmico. Procuramos demonstrar que, mais do que simplesmente informar sobre o desempenho do aprendiz de LE, esse feedback pode atuar como um mediador da atividade cognitiva e metacognitiva discente. No plano teórico, situamos o ambiente de ensino-aprendizagem em que essa tecnologia deve operar e destacamos as condições metodológicas, didáticas e informáticas mais favoráveis para o sucesso da sua concretização. Apoiados na perspectiva do Ensino-Aprendizagem das Línguas Estrangeiras, apresentamos a evolução dos métodos aliados às tecnologias educativas e, no CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), do uso do computador no ensino-aprendizagem, focalizando os modos de correção automática das atividades linguísticas. A partir daí, concebemos o modo de correção cognitivista que trata o erro do aprendiz por meio da previsão de suas eventuais respostas, cadastráveis no sistema informático, e da criação de mensagens específicas do erro e da questão que possam auxiliar na resolução das atividades propostas. Tais previsões, assim como as relativas mensagens, encontram respaldo na disciplina Análise de Erros, fundada em meados de 1960 por Stephen Pit Corder. No plano prático, criamos o software F.A.R.E., uma ferramenta de autoria para o professor capaz de abrigar atividades de compreensão textual e competência linguística a serem realizadas em modalidade assíncrona. A especificidade do programa é o cadastro de mensagens de acerto ou focalização do erro discente (Mensagem Focalizar), análise da questão (Mensagem Analisar), resolução da questão por meio de um exemplo (Mensagem Resolver) e explicação da resposta correta em discurso didático (Mensagem Executar). Em segunda etapa, criamos e cadastramos no software F.A.R.E. uma Unidade de Aprendizagem (UA) com cinco atividades linguísticas sobre a introdução do romance Se una notte dinverno un viaggiatore, de Italo Calvino. O programa foi posteriormente testado junto a estudantes de graduação e licenciatura em Letras, com habilitação em italiano, da Universidade de São Paulo, e os resultados indicam que o aprendiz inserido em contexto acadêmico reconhece esse feedback automático corretivo como um mediador da sua atividade cognitiva e como um fator relevante para a aprendizagem da língua alvo. Pudemos constatar que a interação dos estudantes com as mensagens por eles acionadas gerou a diminuição da sua incerteza acerca do enunciado e da realização das atividades propostas, o abandono da estratégia tentativa e erro em prol de estratégias cognitivas até chegar à resposta correta e, acima de tudo, a oportunidade de obter um maior controle sobre o material didático, sobre os próprios processos cognitivos envolvidos na solução dos problemas e, em última instância, sobre a própria aprendizagem. / This thesis highlights the importance of immediate corrective feedback in educational software for language teaching in the academic sphere. We aim to demonstrate that, rather than simply reporting on the performance ofthe foreign language learner, this feedback can act as a mediator of students cognitive and metacognitive activity. At the theoretical level, we describe the teachinglearning environment in which this technology should be used, as well as the most favorable methodological, educational and information technology requirements for its successful implementation. We present the evolution of methods associated with educational technologies based on the perspective of the Foreign Language Teaching, and in CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning), the evolution of the use of computers in teaching and learning, focusing on modes for the automatic correction of language activities. Based on this, we developed the concept of the cognitive correction mode, which deals with students errors by predicting their possible responses, which can be recorded in the computer system, and by creating messages that are specific to the error and the issue, and that may assist in resolving the proposed activities. These predictions and the related messages are supported in the discipline of Error Analysis, established in mid-1960 by Stephen Pit Corder. On a practical level, we created the F.A.R.E.software, an authoring tool for teachers that can cater for text-comprehension and linguistic competence activities to be performed in an asynchronous mode. The specificity of the program is the recording of messages for hits or for focusing student errors (Focus Message), for analyzing the issue (Analyze Message), addressing the issue bymeans of an example (Resolve Message) and for explaining the correct answer in didactic discourse (Execute Message). In the second step, we created and recorded a Learning Unit (LU) in the F.A.R.E.software with five linguistic activities related to the introduction of the novel Se una notte dinverno un viaggiatore, by Italo Calvino.The program was later tested with undergraduate and licentiate students of Language e Literature, majoring in Italian at the University of São Paulo. The results indicate that a student within the academic context recognizes this automatic corrective feedback as a mediator of his or her cognitive activity and as a relevant factor for learning the target language. We observed that the interaction of students with the messagesthey triggered resulted in a reduction in their uncertainty about the statement and the completion of the proposed activities, the abandonment of the trial-and-error strategy in favor of cognitive strategies to arrive at the correct answer, and, above all, the opportunity to gain greater control over the instructional material, their own cognitive processes involved in solving problems and, ultimately, their own learning.

Esta tese destaca a importância do feedback corretivo imediato nos softwares didáticos de ensino linguístico em âmbito acadêmico. Procuramos demonstrar que, mais do que simplesmente informar sobre o desempenho do aprendiz de LE, esse feedback pode atuar como um mediador da atividade cognitiva e metacognitiva discente. No plano teórico, situamos o ambiente de ensino-aprendizagem em que essa tecnologia deve operar e destacamos as condições metodológicas, didáticas e informáticas mais favoráveis para o sucesso da sua concretização. Apoiados na perspectiva do Ensino-Aprendizagem das Línguas Estrangeiras, apresentamos a evolução dos métodos aliados às tecnologias educativas e, no CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), do uso do computador no ensino-aprendizagem, focalizando os modos de correção automática das atividades linguísticas. A partir daí, concebemos o modo de correção cognitivista que trata o erro do aprendiz por meio da previsão de suas eventuais respostas, cadastráveis no sistema informático, e da criação de mensagens específicas do erro e da questão que possam auxiliar na resolução das atividades propostas. Tais previsões, assim como as relativas mensagens, encontram respaldo na disciplina Análise de Erros, fundada em meados de 1960 por Stephen Pit Corder. No plano prático, criamos o software F.A.R.E., uma ferramenta de autoria para o professor capaz de abrigar atividades de compreensão textual e competência linguística a serem realizadas em modalidade assíncrona. A especificidade do programa é o cadastro de mensagens de acerto ou focalização do erro discente (Mensagem Focalizar), análise da questão (Mensagem Analisar), resolução da questão por meio de um exemplo (Mensagem Resolver) e explicação da resposta correta em discurso didático (Mensagem Executar). Em segunda etapa, criamos e cadastramos no software F.A.R.E. uma Unidade de Aprendizagem (UA) com cinco atividades linguísticas sobre a introdução do romance Se una notte dinverno un viaggiatore, de Italo Calvino. O programa foi posteriormente testado junto a estudantes de graduação e licenciatura em Letras, com habilitação em italiano, da Universidade de São Paulo, e os resultados indicam que o aprendiz inserido em contexto acadêmico reconhece esse feedback automático corretivo como um mediador da sua atividade cognitiva e como um fator relevante para a aprendizagem da língua alvo. Pudemos constatar que a interação dos estudantes com as mensagens por eles acionadas gerou a diminuição da sua incerteza acerca do enunciado e da realização das atividades propostas, o abandono da estratégia tentativa e erro em prol de estratégias cognitivas até chegar à resposta correta e, acima de tudo, a oportunidade de obter um maior controle sobre o material didático, sobre os próprios processos cognitivos envolvidos na solução dos problemas e, em última instância, sobre a própria aprendizagem. / This thesis highlights the importance of immediate corrective feedback in educational software for language teaching in the academic sphere. We aim to demonstrate that, rather than simply reporting on the performance ofthe foreign language learner, this feedback can act as a mediator of students cognitive and metacognitive activity. At the theoretical level, we describe the teachinglearning environment in which this technology should be used, as well as the most favorable methodological, educational and information technology requirements for its successful implementation. We present the evolution of methods associated with educational technologies based on the perspective of the Foreign Language Teaching, and in CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning), the evolution of the use of computers in teaching and learning, focusing on modes for the automatic correction of language activities. Based on this, we developed the concept of the cognitive correction mode, which deals with students errors by predicting their possible responses, which can be recorded in the computer system, and by creating messages that are specific to the error and the issue, and that may assist in resolving the proposed activities. These predictions and the related messages are supported in the discipline of Error Analysis, established in mid-1960 by Stephen Pit Corder. On a practical level, we created the F.A.R.E.software, an authoring tool for teachers that can cater for text-comprehension and linguistic competence activities to be performed in an asynchronous mode. The specificity of the program is the recording of messages for hits or for focusing student errors (Focus Message), for analyzing the issue (Analyze Message), addressing the issue bymeans of an example (Resolve Message) and for explaining the correct answer in didactic discourse (Execute Message). In the second step, we created and recorded a Learning Unit (LU) in the F.A.R.E.software with five linguistic activities related to the introduction of the novel Se una notte dinverno un viaggiatore, by Italo Calvino.The program was later tested with undergraduate and licentiate students of Language e Literature, majoring in Italian at the University of São Paulo. The results indicate that a student within the academic context recognizes this automatic corrective feedback as a mediator of his or her cognitive activity and as a relevant factor for learning the target language. We observed that the interaction of students with the messagesthey triggered resulted in a reduction in their uncertainty about the statement and the completion of the proposed activities, the abandonment of the trial-and-error strategy in favor of cognitive strategies to arrive at the correct answer, and, above all, the opportunity to gain greater control over the instructional material, their own cognitive processes involved in solving problems and, ultimately, their own learning.

The influence of affective factors on learning has been studied by researchers in a range of disciplines, including within SLA research, where tests measuring anxiety specific to second language writing have been developed (Cheng, 2004). Recent studies on instructor perceptions show increasing numbers of second language learners (SLL) enrolled in mainstream university courses with instructors providing varying types of feedback to these learners. The current study investigates how the writing anxiety of second language learners in a mainstream context may relate to writing performance and how feedback anxiety resulting from one written assignment may be connected to writing performance on a subsequent assignment. Using modified writing anxiety survey instruments, 16 SLLs enrolled in two mainstream university English composition courses (taught by two instructors) completed two surveys, an informal interview, and an online questionnaire about feedback on two writing assignments prepared for their course; feedback and a grade from one assignment and a grade from a second assignment were also collected. Mainstream instructors were found to balance feedback provided to learners between content and organization feedback and grammatical feedback, similar to findings on feedback practices for second language instructors (Evans et al., 2010). Statistical analyses between survey results and grades revealed negative (non-statistically significant) correlations between anxiety scores (from surveys) and grades. Participants expressed 16 different emotions in response to feedback through qualitative data collection methods (open-ended survey questions, interviews, and online questionnaire); hope, acceptance, and anxiety were the three most commonly emotions reported. The number and complexity of emotional responses reported indicate that anxiety is only one of numerous responses to feedback and research on the effects of affective factors on learning may benefit from investigations of other emotions, including pleasant or positive emotions. Two data collection methods converged in reporting that nearly all participants made use of feedback through one or more forms of follow up action. Continued research into the complex emotions inspired by writing feedback may provide a deeper understanding of how SLLs may moderate their own emotional responses and provide instructors insight into additional factors that may affect learners’ writing performance. / Graduate / 0290 / amalec@uvic.ca

This dissertation addresses the differential effects of two oral corrective feedback strategies, recasts and metalinguistic prompts, on the acquisition of Chinese wh-questions and classifiers, while examining how individual differences (i.e. language analytical abilities, attitudes, and anxiety) would moderate the effects of CF. Two beginning Chinese classes were randomly assigned to the recast or metalinguistic prompts group. In a span of 5 weeks, a total of 4 treatment sessions took place. Students were tested with an oral production task and a written error correction task before, immediately after, and two weeks after the treatment. Mixed-method ANOVAs were used to analyze the differential effects of the two CF strategies on the acquisition of wh-questions and classifiers. In addition, students also completed two questionnaires, with one testing their language analytical ability, and a combined questionnaire measuring their attitudes and anxiety. Multiple regressions were used to analyze the relationship between individual differences and students’ learning outcome. The results showed that the metalinguistic prompts group had significant gains in accuracy in all measures, regardless of testing time (posttests or delayed posttests), target forms (wh-questions or classifiers), and testing mode (oral production or written error correction tests). The recast group showed significant gains in the written tests for wh-questions and classifiers, but only achieved significant short-term gains for wh-questions in the oral test. Regarding individual differences, we found that learners’ language analytical abilities and attitudes were important in predicting their test performance, while anxiety did not affect the learning outcome. Results were discussed within the Interactional Cognitive Framework. Form-focused instruction, along with metalinguistic prompts, which were consistent, output-pushing, and reminded students of previous learned declarative knowledge, worked better than input-providing CF (recasts) for both syntactic and lexical features. Metalinguistic prompts withheld the target L2 forms, provided metalinguistic comments, and pushed for modified output, which may have increased the likelihood for learners to close the gap between their existing knowledge and the target L2 forms, and convert declarative knowledge into procedural knowledge. The findings also suggested that CF could be delivered without raising students’ anxiety, and helping students maintain positive attitude was important for their language development.