Oral Corrective Feedback on Pronunciation Errors: The Mediating Effects of Learners’ Engagement with Feedback

Abstract

This study examined low-proficiency Iranian EFL students’ affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement with oral corrective feedback (OCF) on interdental fricative errors: /θ/and/ð/. The data were collected from 27 learners with favorable and unfavorable perceptions about OCF. After receiving OCF on 30 tested and 30 untested lexical items in tutoring sessions, the participants took a posttest. The analysis of the data showed that the learners with positive perceptions about OCF had significantly higher accuracy gains, as shown by their posttest results. The interviews showed that the learners’ positive perceptions about OCF had positive affective engagement. Also, the learners who perceived pronunciation accuracy as an important component of their language development showed positive patterns of affective engagement with OCF. Additionally, the learners who affectively engaged with direct OCF positively tended to show positive behavioral and cognitive engagement with feedback. These learners reviewed the provided OCF and practiced the correction by employing an array of cognitive strategies (e.g., repetition). Overall, our findings show that positive engagement with feedback can result in higher pronunciation accuracy gains. Therefore, teachers should familiarize themselves with their students’ perceptions about feedback on their pronunciation errors, since these perceptions may impact the way students engage with feedback affectively, behaviorally, and cognitively. For instance, students who value pronunciation accuracy may be more likely to positively engage with feedback on pronunciation errors, while students who emphasize effective communication may negatively engage with such feedback.