Patterns of corrective feedback in a task-based adult EFL classroom setting in China

Abstract

This chapter reports on a study that investigated patterns of corrective feedback observed in teacher - student and student - student interaction in a task-based EFL class at a medium-sized university in China. Eight hours of classroom interaction data were analyzed for various types of feedback and uptake. Despite the large class size and the students' unfamiliarity with a teaching methodology that is very different from the traditional Chinese way of learning and teaching the study found frequent interaction in the classroom characterized by teacher feedback to the students' non-target-like utterances and students' response to the feedback. These findings were interpreted in terms of characteristics of task-based interaction observed in the study, the principles or practices of TBLT in the context of the current study, and the factors affecting the classroom interaction. The main implication of this study is that active student participation was enhanced by the students' willingness to accept new methodologies and modes of learning that are vastly different from their past learning experiences, from their beliefs about learning, and from the traditional methodologies they were accustomed to.