Explicit and Implicit Written Corrective Feedback in Higher EFL Education: Evidence from Turkey

Abstract

This study investigated the efficiency of explicit and implicit written corrective feedback in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education in higher education. Participants of the study were late-elementary and pre-intermediate adult learners of English who were attending a preparatory school in a Turkish state university. During a period of four weeks, exercises on prepositions were delivered to subjects who were divided into three groups as two treatment groups receiving explicit and implicit written correction and a control group receiving no feedback. A pre-test and a post-test were applied to the groups at the start and the end of the fourweek treatment, respectively in order to examine possible development of the groups. The results indicated significant differences between pre-test and post-test scores of the groups receiving the two types of written corrective feedback.

Developing Sustainable Email Pragmatic Competence for EFL Learners through Reformulation

“…The learners perceived that, through this activity, their memories of the reformulations and native speaker model could last for a longer period of time. In the typical teacher correction approach, the teacher may carefully provide explicit, detailed corrective feedback [50] and return the corrections to learners without asking them to notice the differences between the original and the corrected versions. Third, the learners perceived the reformulations and native speaker model as offering different kinds of assistance in the development of their email writing abilities.…”

The Effectiveness of a Proposed Program Integrating Focus on Form and Gamified Learning in Fostering Egyptian English Majors' Phrasal Verbs Comprehension and Production

“…Implicit CF involves the techniques of recasts, metalinguistic feedback, repetition, clarification requests and elicitation (Mohamed, 2006;Ellis, 2009;Asadollahfam, Kuhi, Salimi & Mirzaei, 2012;Ellis, 2015;Bandar & Gorjian, 2017;Babanoğlu, Ağçam & Badem, 2018;Xie & Yeung, 2018;Yu, 2022). A recast takes place when EFL instructors reformulate the students' deviant utterances by producing the correct form without directly telling the students that they made a mistake (McDonough & Mackey, 2006;Kamiya, 2015;Abdollahzadeh, 2016;Bandar & Gorjian, 2017;Paraskeva & Agathopoulou, 2022).…”

“…Thus, while metalinguistic feedback requires EFL learners to repair their incorrect utterances themselves, a recast provides these learners with the correct target forms in case they are unable to modify their utterances (Mohammadi, 2009;Alqahtani, 2019) Repetition takes place when the teacher repeats the student's deviant utterance placing more stress on the error and using a rising intonation pattern in order to draw the learner's attention to that error. Consequently, the EFL student will be able to correct it himself or herself (Abdollahzadeh, 2016;Bandar & Gorjian, 2017;Babanoğlu, Ağçam & Badem, 2018;Yu, 2022). For instance, if a student incorrectly states, ' The engine stopped working as we ran out in petrol.…”

“…A clarification request happens when the teacher demonstrates to the student that his/ her wrong utterance or sentence has been misinterpreted and a reformulation is, therefore, needed (Abdollahzadeh, 2016;Bandar & Gorjian, 2017;Babanoğlu, Ağçam & Badem, 2018;Xie & Yeung, 2018;Yu, 2022). For instance, when a student erroneously maintains, ' In order to get a good job, you need to stand up from the crowd.…”

“…Would you please reformulate your utterance to clarify what you mean?' On the other hand, in elicitation, the teacher uses hints, prompts and gestures to elicit the correct form from the students (Bandar & Gorjian, 2017;Babanoğlu, Ağçam & Badem, 2018;Xie & Yeung, 2018;Ayouni & El-Sukny, 2022). By so doing, the teacher will help the student correct the erroneous use of 'stand up' in the previous example by saying, ' You mean to be noticeable and distinguished, don't you?…”