Corrective Feedback Strategies Used in Chinese Senior Middle School EFL Classes

【Abstract】Error correction，part of teacher talk，plays a significant role in the classroom interaction.This thesis discusses the current error correction practice in Chinese senior middle school English classes and then proposes several approaches to improve English teachers corrective feedback strategies.

【Key words】Corrective feedback； EFT class

1.Introduction

Most learners will make errors before their knowledge system is changed into the capacity of language use.Teachers attitude to errors and strategies of error correction will affect language learning and learners enthusiasm to some degree.

However，nowadays，many English teachers in Chinese senior middle schools still do not pay enough attention to their corrective feedback，and make no real change when they teach English in class under the pressure of the college entrance examination.Some teachers do not care about their corrective feedback and the students response because of the limited class time.

Thanks to scholars，the significance of error correction is highly valued and more and more investigations about teachers corrective feedback in authentic English classrooms are conducted in recent years.

So in this essay writing，based on some researchers investigation in authentic Chinese senior middle school English classes and my own experiences，I firstly show the corrective feedback strategies currently used in Chinese senior middle school EFL classes，then discuss about the Chinese current practice and the approach proposed by Shegar et al （2013） that promotes noticing，noticing the gap and production practice.Finally，I will present and evaluate the possible approaches that would be more consistent with the one proposed by Shegar et al.

2.Corrective Feedback Strategies Used in Chinese Senior Middle School EFL Classes

Many empirical studies about error correction in Chinese senior middle school EFL classes are case studies in which investigations are conducted in different areas of China，so frankly speaking，their findings will inevitably show some differences.Combined with my own experiences，I try to find some similarities that can mostly reflect the present situation in Chinese senior middle school EFL classes.

Most of the empirical studies are based on the six types of corrective feedback sorted by Lyster and Ranta （1997）：explicit correction，recasts，clarification requests，metalinguistic clues，elicitation，and repetition.Their definitions are concluded as follows：

Explicit correction：Clearly indicating that the student's utterance is incorrect，and the teacher provides the correct form.

Recasts：The teacher implicitly reformulates the students error，or provides the correction without directly pointing out that the students utterance is incorrect.

Elicitation：The teacher directly elicits the correct form from the student by asking questions by pausing to allow the student to complete the teacher's utterance or by asking students to reformulate the utterance.

Meta-linguistic clues：The teacher poses questions like “Do we say it like that？” or provides comments or information related to the formation of the student's utterance without providing the correct form.

Clarification request：The teacher indicates that the message has not been understood or that the student's utterances included some kind of mistake and that a repetition or a reformulation is needed by using phrases like “Excuse me？” “Are you sure？”

Repetition：The teacher repeats the student's error and changes intonation to draw students attention to it. （He，2011：9-10）

Their findings reveal that the error correction in todays Chinese senior middle school English classes include all the six types，among which explicit correction and recasts are used more often than others.（He，2011； Guo，2008； Li，2012； Zhao，2005）.To be more exact，Guo （2008） shows the percentage of each type that teachers use in English classes，among which explicit correction takes the highest percentage--52%，and recasts take the percentage of 20%.That is to say，in China，senior middle school English teachers tend to correct students errors explicitly and at the same time provide the correct form，or rephrase students ill-formed utterances without directly pointing out that the students utterance is incorrect.

3.Discussion about the Current Practice and Possible Approaches

In this part，I will firstly give my own discussion about the Chinese current practice and the approach proposed by Shegar et al （2013） that promotes noticing，noticing the gap and production practice，then present and evaluate the possible approaches that would be more consistent with the one proposed by Shegar et al.

Explicit correction，the major corrective feedback strategy used by Chinese senior middle school English teachers，is inconsistent with an approach to corrective feedback that promotes noticing，noticing the gap and production practice.First，noticing refers to a private experience where linguistic stimuli are subjectively experienced （Schmidt，1990），requiring the learners focal attention or awareness.Through explicit correction，teacher points out students error explicitly and at the same time provide the correct form.In this correction process，linguistic stimuli are passively experienced，and lacking of consciousness，learners can possibly understand rather than noticing the target structure，because noticing requires learners to have a higher level of awareness of the rules governing a target structure （ibid）.Whats more，after teachers pointing out，although learners may compare how their own output differ from the target ones，they are not given enough time to do some repair or adjustment，thus they have difficulty internalizing the new structure into their own mental grammar.Last but not least，in the process of explicit correction，learners are not given enough opportunities to practice in the use of target structures through communication.Lacking of such experiences of negotiation of meaning and enough practice in the use of certain form，learners have a long way to go before they can use the target structure automatically.

While recasts conform an approach to corrective feedback that promotes noticing，noticing the gap and production practice to some degree.Through recasts，teachers provide learners with a reformulation of a problematic utterance，in this way，learners may notice，compare，and notice the gap between the target structure and their own output，then be pushed to adjust or modify their own output.

As for the possible approaches that would be more consistent with the one proposed by Shegar et al （2013） than current practice，I think meta-linguistic clues and elicitation are better choices.These two ways offer learners experiences with linguistic stimuli，push them to notice the gap between the target structure and their own output，provide them with opportunities to modify their output，and to practice the target structure.

However，meta-linguistic clues and elicitation are relative time-consuming if employed in the limited 45-minute classes.Although，learners can benefit a lot from these two ways，they maybe not so appropriate given various pre-established goals.One obvious reason is that both teachers and students are under heavy pressure of the college entrance examination.If error correction is carried out through meta-linguistic clues and elicitation，time will be a big problem，thus pre-established teaching tasks and goals can not be accomplished in the given time.Another reason is that there are some low-level students，who cannot understand or notice even if teachers have given some hints，if they cannot interact smoothly with teachers in classes，they will lose face or they may fear others laughing.In the long run，these students will lose self-confidence.So it is also a big challenge for teachers.Because in reality，teachers should take the context of concrete situation，such as the specific type of errors，the level and personality of students，into consideration，and use the corrective feedback strategies flexibly.

4.Conclusion

Error correction plays a vitally important role in the process of language learning.However，in Chinese senior middle school EFL classes，error correction is a rather complicated matter，many aspects of practical contexts have to be considered when error correction is carried out as ideally as we expect.Therefore，further research and investigations are needed to explore more appropriate approaches that suit the Chinese context well.

References：

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作者簡介：杜娟（1990-）女，漢族，河南南陽人，浙江師范大學(xué)外國語學(xué)院在讀研究生，研究方向：外國語言學(xué)及應(yīng)用語言學(xué)。