The Effects Of Corrective Feedback On The Acquisition Of Present Progressive Tense Of Primary School Pupils:an Empirical Study

In recent decades, corrective feedback has been a hot topic in the field of second language learning. Experts and scholars both in China and abroad have done a lot of researches, including theoretical studies and experiments. Although researchers tend to agree that corrective feedback (CF) plays a positive role in language learning, they have found that different types of feedback have different effects on learning. Among the six CF types, recast and metalinguistic clue have been the focus of the scholars. But we have to point out that empirical investigations into comparative study of the two are relatively scare in English as a foreign language (EFL) setting, let alone pupils as research subjects. Based on comprehensive input hypothesis, interaction hypothesis and noticing hypothesis, this study thus attempts to discuss the impacts of two forms of feedback on pupils’acquisition of present progressive tense.Three questions in the following are designed for the study:(1) Is there any positive effect of recasts and metalinguistic clue on learning the present progressive tense?(2) Is there any difference between the effect of recast and metalinguistic clue on learning the present progressive tense?(3) To what extent do the pupils’attitudes towards error and error correction mediate the effect of corrective feedback?This study has spaned approximately two months, employing pretest-posttest measure and a questionnaire in the research design. The subjects are45pupils in Grade5who come from one of the primary schools in Changsha, China. They are randomly divided into three groups: the recast group (n=15), the metalinguistic group (n=15), and the control group (n=15). The three groups are asked to take part in communicative tasks in which they receive different corrective feedback on errors involved in learning present progressive tense (PPT). The statistics collected from the study show that metalinguistic clue has been widely accepted and noticed by pupils, thus facilitating acquisition of present progressive tense in English classroom in the primary schools. This form of feedback has clear advantage over recast, and the advantage becomes more obvious as time goes on. Being scarcely noticed by the pupils, the effects of recast are limited in language learning.The findings of this empirical study suggest that it should be better for teachers in primary schools to use metalinguistic clue to facilitate acquisition of PPT.