The Effects Of Oral Corrective Feedback On Chinese Efl Learners’acquisition Of The English Simple Past Tense

This study investigates the effects of oral corrective feedback(OCF)on Chinese EFL learners’ acquisition of the English simple past tense.The study employed quasi-experimental research design using mixed method approach.75 EFL learners from Jiangsu University,comprised of 4 groups participated in the study.The participants’ knowledge of the English simple past tense was assessed in pre-tests one week prior to the commencement of intervention and in post-tests which were administered two weeks after the last treatment task using an untimed grammaticality judgment task and a timed written picture description task.Results of repeated-measured ANOVA with subsequent ANOVA and post-hoc test on the untimed grammaticality judgment task and ANCOVA on timed picture description task with post hoc comparisons indicated that the treatment groups performed significantly better than the control group.Additionally,the group provided with explicit correction with metalinguistic information outperformed the other treatment groups and the control group in both measures of the study.This implies that OCF contributes to the improvement in knowledge of usage.The results also revealed that 80.39% of the learners would prefer to receive instant feedback when they produced erroneous utterances during English communicative activities whilst other participants expressed their preferences to be corrected right after finishing turns in a friendly manner.The study concludes that language teachers should take into consideration learner emotions and should be aware of learners’ attitudes toward OCF.