This quasi-experimental study investigated the noticeability and effectiveness of three corrective feedback (CF) techniques (recasts, prompts and a combination of the two) delivered in the language classroom. The participants were four groups of high-beginner college level francophone learners of English as a second language (ESL) ( n = 99) and their teachers. Each teacher was assigned to a treatment condition that fit his CF style, but the researcher taught the controls. CF was provided to the learners in response to their production problems with the simple past and questions in the past. While the noticing of CF was assessed through immediate recall protocols, learning outcomes were measured by way of picture description and spot-the-differences tasks administered through a pre-test/post-test design. The results indicated that the noticeability of CF is dependent on the grammatical target it addresses (i.e. feedback on past tense errors was noticed more) and that the CF techniques that push learners to self-correct alone or in combination with target exemplars are more effective in bringing out the corrective intent of the feedback move. In relation to the learning outcomes, the past tense accuracy levels increased more than those for questions, but the differences between the two targets were not significant across groups.

This study investigated the relationship between pre-service English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and their actual teaching practices. To determine the nature of this relationship, 99 teachers-in-training with little or no teaching experience were asked to complete a questionnaire seeking information about their teaching beliefs, particularly about oral corrective feedback (i.e. teachers’ responses to students’ language errors). The teachers’ responses were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis which revealed several dimensions underlying their beliefs. To examine how these beliefs affect classroom performance, 10 of the teachers were first asked to indicate how they would correct language errors illustrated in hypothetical (videotaped) classroom scenarios and were then observed teaching an authentic ESL class. The classes were video-recorded and 30-minute teacher-fronted communicative segments from the lessons were analysed for the number and type of errors learners made and the teachers addressed. Results indicate a multifarious relationship between stated beliefs and actual teaching practices in that while the teachers corrected fewer errors than they believed they would, they preferred the same corrective techniques in both hypothetical and actual teaching situations. Most notably, the study suggests that the complexities of the language classroom and the pre-service teachers’ lack of experience at integrating theoretical knowledge and practical skills, lead them to behave overall as native-speaking interlocutors, not as language teachers. Implications for teacher training are discussed.

The goal of this study was to determine whether learner beliefs regarding corrective feedback mediate what is noticed and learned in the language classroom. The participants were four groups of high‐beginner college‐level francophone English as a second language learners and their teachers. Each teacher was assigned to a treatment condition that fit his corrective feedback style, and each provided feedback in response to errors with the past tense and questions in the past. Participants (N = 197) completed a beliefs questionnaire, and half (n = 99) took part in the intervention that followed. Beliefs were probed using a 40‐item questionnaire, and average belief scores were calculated for each learner. These were then correlated both with the noticing reported on an immediate recall measure and with the test scores on picture description and spot‐the‐differences tasks. The results reveal four common beliefs, two of which mediated the noticeability of the supplied feedback, but none of which impacted the learning outcomes.

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This study compared the beliefs college-level students hold about corrective feedback in different learning contexts: English as a second language (Canada, n = 197) and English as a foreign language (Russia, n = 224 Learner beliefs, defined as learners' metacognitive knowledge about learning (Wenden, 1999), are seen as "significant learner characteristics to take into account when explaining learning outcomes" (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015, p. 187) because they shape and affect the way learners go about the task of learning (e.g., Breen, 2001; Fox, 1993;Horwitz, 1985Horwitz, , 1999Mori, 1999;Tanaka, 2004 learners hold about language acquisition, but also revealed factors that could shape those beliefs. These may include