Corrective Feedback and Learner Uptake in Communicative-Based Small Group Language Lessons

A number of studies have investigated the degree of uptake by second language learners of corrective feedback during communicative classroom activity (Ellis, Basturkmen, & Loewen, 2001; Loewen, 2004; Lyster & Ranta, 1997). Typically, these have focused on conventional classroom settings. In this study, however, it is the small group lesson that is the focus of investigation. The study examines corrective feedback as it occurs in communicative-based small group English language lessons. The data consists of 5 hours and 35 minutes of communicative interaction, recorded during four lessons taught by two native speaking English teachers to Korean EFL students. Several feedback types and forms of student uptake have been defined, and the data has been coded methodologically using Lyster and Ranta’s (1997) analytical categories. Overall findings showed that recast was overwhelmingly the feedback type preferred by the two teachers. However, in terms of stimulating student uptake, techniques that implicitly elicit a correction from the student - elicitation, metalinguistic feedback, clarification requests, and repetition of student error - were most successful, all having a 100% success rate. These same feedback types are shown to constitute the negotiation of form, in that the student is ‘pushed’ to self-correct, and can possibly promote L2 acquisition. In general, the current study suggests that the small group context of the lessons allowed for high rates of student uptake, regardless of the feedback type used.