English Teachers' And Students' Attitudes Towards Oral Corrective Feedback In A Chinese University

Since the 1960 s,there has been a debate on treating the oral errors of foreign language learners in the teaching of English as a foreign language.Some researchers argue that students' oral errors should be corrected completely,in case they become internalized in the learning process.Other researchers hold that,if the errors don't influence the communication,there is no need to correct them.They state that the atmosphere in which students can express themselves freely is more important than the speech without errors.However,most researchers have reached a consensus that corrective feedback can make learners themselves realize the difference between their interlanguage and target language and provide a chance to correct their interlanguage hypothesis.Though various studies have proved the effects of corrective feedback,the research of students' attitudes towards corrective feedback is limited.Based on the framework in examining oral correction by Hendrikson(1978),this study investigated teachers' and students' attitudes towards oral error corrective feedback in a university in Jiangxi Province.It employed three instruments: a questionnaire,classroom observation and interview.120 English major students and 20 teachers were involved in this study.The study investigated students' attitudes towards corrective feedback from five aspects,that is,whether oral corrective feedback should be provided in classrooms,what types of oral errors should be corrected,how the oral errors should be corrected,who should do oral corrective feedback.It was hoped that the results of the study would provide some pedagogical implications for oral English teachers.This study has revealed a number of findings regarding English teachers' and students' attitudes towards oral correction:(1)Teachers and students all agreed that there was a positive effect of the oral corrective feedback.However,teachers stated that the errors should be corrected selectively,while students insisted that their teachers should correct errors;(2)As for the types of oral errors,students would like their teachers to give the most corrective feedback first in lexical errors,followed by phonological errors,grammatical errors and pragmatic errors.However,teachers give the most corrective feedback first in lexical,followed by grammatical errors,phonological errors,and pragmatic errors;(3)As for the time of oral corrective feedback,both students and teachers preferred the delayed corrective feedback;(4)In terms of the types of oral corrective feedback,both students and teachers preferred “recast”;(5)In terms of who should take the responsibility of oral correction,most students and teachers would like teachers to provide the oral corrective feedback towards phonological errors,grammatical errors and pragmatic errors.However,as to lexical errors,teachers would like their students to do self-correction.On the basis of the findings above,we can offer some implications for oral English teachers.First of all,teachers should know students' attitudes on oral corrective feedback so that they can adjust their teaching skills to meet the needs of the students.Secondly,teachers should realize that pragmatic errors are as important as other types of oral errors during the process of daily teaching and they should help students to accumulate pragmatic expressions.Thirdly,teachers should vary the time properly when they are providing oral corrective feedback.Fourthly,as for how to correct the oral errors,teachers should have a systematical knowledge concerning the issue of corrective feedback.Meanwhile,teachers should give some explanation to their usual ways of oral corrective feedback for students,and then students will be more famaliar with teachers' classroom discourse.Finally,teachers should encourage students themselves or other students to join in the correction of oral erors.