A Study On Teacher Feedback In Intensive Reading Class Of English Majors In Xinjiang University

As a crucial part of teacher talk, teacher feedback has drawn widespread attentionfrom scholars abroad and home in the field of second language acquisition. Teacherfeedback, namely, the third move of IRF (initiation，response，feedback) model, refersto teachers’ behavior with information toward students’ performance. And it can bedivided into written form, verbal form and non-verbal form. The present study focuseson teachers’ verbal feedback.The author investigates four aspects of teacher feedback in intensive readingclass through classroom observation, questionnaire and interview. They are: the typesand distribution of teacher feedback; the effect of teacher feedback on students’ lateroutput; the preference of students for teacher feedback; the gaps between students’preference and teachers’ practice of feedback. The theoretical framework includesconstructivism, input hypothesis, interaction hypothesis, and output hypothesis. Thesubjects are6teachers and123students (67in first-year and56in second-year).Theclassroom observation lasts for6weeks, and6units are observed. After classroomobservation, students are asked to do the questionnaire and teachers are interviewed.The data of questionnaire is analyzed by SPSS19.0.The results are as follows:(1) Six types are frequently used, and they are: simple approval, repetition,expansion, recast, negotiation of meaning, and restatement. Simple approvaltakes up the highest ratio (36%) which is followed by repetition (23%),expansion (15.3%), and recast (9.3%) subsequently. The percentage ofnegotiation of meaning is almost the same as that of recast. Restatementranks at the last place as far as the six types are concerned.(2) Through the analysis of extracts, it is found that expansion and negotiation ofmeaning are conductive to students’ later performance in that it can open themove and lengthen the talk turn. Thus they can provide students with more opportunities to show themselves. However, the rest four types of feedbackhave relative less effect on students’ output.(3) Students hold the idea that teacher feedback casts great influence on theirparticipation in classroom interaction. Positive and encouraging feedback canmake students more confident and active in participation. Meanwhile,students hope teachers can provide delayed correction when there are expliciterrors in their answers. As far as criticism is concerned, students are willingto accept it if teachers can provide criticism in an indirect way.(4) Teachers lack comprehensive knowledge of the significance of feedback. Andmismatches between students’ expectations and teachers’ use of feedbackexist. When students cannot answer the question temporarily, they hope theirteachers can give them illuminations or hints while the teacher tends to repeator explain the question. When students give correct answers, they hope theirteachers can provide specific praise while the teacher only provides simplepraise most of the time. When students’ answers are not completely right,they hope the teachers can guide them to the right answers while the teacherwould like to ask another student to answer. Two reasons account for thisphenomenon:(1) teachers don’t know students’ needs;(2) teachers’ positiondiffers from that of students.The present research has some pedagogical implications. Teachers are suggestedto have much knowledge about the functions of feedback, understand students’preference and provide more opportunities for students to express themselves.Consequently, their language proficiency will be improved to a higher level.