A Study Of The Effects Of Corrective Feedback On Learning The Third Person Singular Form Of Simple Present Tense Verbs By Chinese Middle School Students

This empirical study is designed to investigate the effects of corrective feedback on Chinese low-intermediate middle school students, with an attempt to research into the role of two typical implicit corrective feedback (recasts and elicitations) on middle school students'learning the third person singular form of simple present tense verbs in task-based interactional activities. Meanwhile, it examines the correlation between the learners'modified output in response to two different corrective feedback techniques and their target language learning and the correlation between the learners'noticing of two corrective feedback techniques and their target language learning respectively.This study lasts about seven weeks, and employs a pre-test, four treatment sessions, an immediate post-test, a delayed post-test and a noticing recall interview. The subjects in the present study are 30 students from Junior Grade 2, a middle school in South China, including 15 boys and 15 girls. There are three treatment conditions. Therefore, the 30 subjects are randomly assigned into 3 groups: the recast group (n=10, 5 boys and 5 girls): only two-word recast moves are provided; the elicitation group (n=10, 5 boys and 5 girls): only open-ended elicitation moves are provided; the control group (n=10, 5 boys and 5 girls): no feedback is provided. The subjects in two experimental Groups are interviewed after all post-tests and measured their noticing of the interviewer's feedback.The SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 13.0) is used as a statistical analytical instrument. The statistical techniques employed for analysis are Descriptive Statistics, One-Way ANOVA Analysis, Paired-Samples T test, Independent-Samples T test and Pearson Correlation Co-efficient Analysis.Through the quantitative and qualitative analysis, three conclusions are generated:(1) In the pre-test, the subjects'mastery of the third person singular form of simple present tense verbs in three groups is not satisfactory, but there is no significant difference. After the four treatment sessions, all of them make significant improvement. Among them, the subjects in the recast and elicitation groups benefit more than those who are in the control group. Furthermore, recasts are more effective than elicitations. The effects are still sustained in the delayed post-test. However, the subjects in the control group do not make any significant improvement in the delayed post-test. (2) The subjects'modified output in response to elicitations is closely related with their third person singular form of simple present tense verbs learning. However, in most cases, the subjects'modified output in response to recasts and subjects'self-generated modified output can not contribute to their target language learning.(3) By use of the noticing recall interview with the subjects individually, the subjects'noticing of either recasts or elicitations is significantly correlated with their third person singular form of simple present tense verbs learning. Based on the above conclusions, the pedagogical implications of the present study for second language teaching and learning are explored. Teachers need to be systematic and consistent in their provision of feedback, and the corrective feedback should be clear enough to be perceived. In addition, in the teaching process, the techniques employed should allow for time and opportunity for learners to compare and modify their output. Finally, teachers should adopt more effective ways to close a match among their intents, the targeted errors, and the learners'perception of the given feedback.