Research On The Consistency Between Junior High School English Teachers’ Cognitions And Classroom Practices On Phonological Corrective Feedback

Pronunciation teaching has always been the focus in junior high school’s English teaching.And phonological corrective feedback is frequently used by teachers,which is crucial to students’ English acquisition.Although much attention has been paid to corrective feedback since the 1990 s in the field of second language acquisition,researches on phonological corrective feedback and the consistency between teachers’ cognitions and practices are relatively scarce.This study involved sixty-five teachers from different junior high schools in Chongqing with three expert,experienced and novice teachers being the key subjects into questionnaires,semi-structured interviews,stimulated recall and classroom observation to explore the following three research questions:(1)What are junior high school English teachers’ general cognition and the three types of teachers’ cognition on phonological corrective feedback?(2)How do the three types of English teachers provide PCF in classrooms when facing students’ different types of phonological errors?(3)What is the extent of consistency between the three types of teachers’ PCF cognitions and practices? And what factors might account for it?The results revealed that(1)Junior high school teachers’ general cognition was consistent in their attitudes and beliefs about the application of PCF,and inconsistent in their self-reported knowledge and competence.Expert,experienced,and novice teachers herein shared certain similar and different cognitions.For example,they all affirmed the effectiveness of phonological corrective feedback and emphasized the development of their phonological competence,ability of providing PCF as well as related knowledge.As for PCF timing,agents and strategies,they held different attitudes and preferences.(2)Teachers’ PCF rate in class was high,and they tended to employ different ways when providing PCF in the aspects of timing,agents,strategies and techniques.Elicitation,recast and listen and repeat herein ranked the first,followed by repetition and break it down,with the proportion of explicit correction the lowest.(3)Three types of teachers’ cognitions on PCF were largely consistent in their classroom practices,especially in the aspects of PCF ability,knowledge,necessity,effectiveness and phonological error types.But due to the teacher complexity,student characteristics,and environmental diversity,the divergences between teachers’ cognitions and practices on PCF timing,agents,strategies and techniques yielded.This study intended to maximize the effectiveness of PCF by arousing teachers’ awareness of the importance of PCF,stimulating their reflection on PCF cognitions and practices,and developing themselves accordingly.In addition,useful suggestions for teachers’ professional development and the relevant education departments are raised,such as strengthening the experience sharing among expert,experienced and novice teachers,and providing more opportunities for related training programs and inter-school communication.