A Study On Oral Corrective Feedback In Junior High School English Classrooms

In the field of foreign language teaching,corrective feedback(CF)has been a hot research topic at home and abroad,mainly focusing on writing CF and oral CF.Although there are abundant research results on CF at home and abroad,most Chinese studies are mainly related to high school students and college students,and there are few oral CF studies about junior high school students.This research focuses on students and Chinese-English teachers in a junior high school,and explores oral CF in junior high school English classrooms,aiming to solve the following two research questions:(1)What is the current situation of oral CF in junior high school English classrooms?(2)What are the teachers’ and students’ beliefs about oral CF?Based on the research questions,the researcher selected 6 Chinese-English teachers and274 students from a junior high school in M city.The researcher investigated and analyzed two aspects: the current situation of oral CF in junior high school English classrooms,and CF beliefs from teachers and students in junior high school English classrooms by classroom observation,students’ questionnaire,and teachers’ interview.The major research findings are summarized as follows:1.There is a higher frequency of oral CF related to students’ lexical and grammatical errors in junior high school classrooms,but there is less quantity of students’ turns in English;Teachers correct fewer phonological errors and semantic errors;In the six main types of oral CF,recast is the most frequently used,followed by explicit correction and metalinguistic feedback;There is a higher frequency of students ’ uptake and repair about oral CF.2.The students strongly agree on using oral CF in the classroom.For the types of oral CF,the students prefer explicit correction and metalinguistic feedback,and they prefer teachers to correct their semantic errors,followed by lexical errors,phonological errors,and grammatical errors.They also agree on proving students’ uptake and repair after teachers ’ oral CF;Teachers have greater positive beliefs about oral CF in the classrooms and are inclined to use recast and metalinguistic feedback to correct students ’ errors,especially lexical errors and grammatical errors.The teachers hope that the students can provide uptake and repair in English positively after the teachers’ oral CF.According to the above major research findings,the researcher provides some suggestions for teachers about oral CF in junior high school classrooms:1.Encourage students to frequently speak English in the classrooms and appropriately increase the frequency of correcting students ’ phonological errors.2.When teachers conduct oral CF in the classrooms,they should choose different types of oral CF according to different demands.3.After teachers provide oral CF,teachers should give students time to conduct students’ uptake,and further improve the frequency of students’ repair.