Chinese EFL University Teachers and students beliefs towards Oral Corrective Feedback in the English Class

Abstract

This research study investigates the OCF beliefs of Chinese EFL teachers and students in university English-speaking classes and finds out how well their beliefs correspond. In addition, it also explores challenges or concerns teachers and students have during the OCF process.

This study adopted a mixed methods approach in which quantitative and qualitative methods were collected. Quantitative research included student and teacher questionnaires, and 349 students and 85 English teachers from Chinese universities participated in this study. Apart from the questionnaire survey, 10 teachers and 12 students were recruited for individual interviews. T

The findings showed that both students and teachers considered that it was important to provide OCF, but students had a higher desire to be corrected than teachers did. Students wished their errors could be corrected constantly, while many teachers expressed mixed views about the necessity for correcting all oral errors. Moreover, teachers stated that pronunciation errors should receive the most attention, whereas students emphasized grammatical errors more because students were influenced by exam-oriented learning experiences.

The results indicated that students preferred receiving explicit OCF, but teachers preferred providing implicit OCF In addition, both teachers and students indicated that they preferred immediate OCF. Most teachers thought OCF would trigger students' negative feelings, but students believed it would not lead to a decrease in their motivation and enthusiasm to speak English. Lastly, the finding showed that teachers had many challenges and concerns when providing OCF, specifically students' language proficiency, personality, classroom size, time constraints, students' motivation, and lack of inclusion in the standard test. However, most students did not perceive many challenges and kept expressing willingness to receive the teacher's OCF.