CATEGORIES OF ERROR TREATMENT

TYPES OF FEEDBACK:

Recast: implicit corrective feedback.

L: I lost my road.T: Oh, yeah, I see, you lost your way. And then what happened?

Clarification Request:

L: I want practice today, today. (grammar error)T: I am sorry? (clarificatin request).

Metalinguistic feedback: comments, information or questions.

L: I am here since january. T: well, okay, but remember we talked about the present perfect tense?

Elicitation: prompts the learner to self-correct.

L: (to another student) What means this word?. T: uh, luis, how do we say thet in english? What does ….?L: ah, what does this word mean?

Explicit correction:

L: when I have 12 years old…. T: no, not have, you mean, “when I was 12 years old…”

Repetition:

L: when I have 12 years old…. T: “when I was 12 years old…”

Uptake: it is general term that can have a number of manifestations.

L: (to another student) What means this word?. T: uh, luis, how do we say thet in english? What does ….?L: ah, what does this word mean?

Repair: Repetition:

Effectiveness of FFI

Overgeneralization seems to summarize the findings on FFI, however it is reasonable to consider the following assertions.

Most of reaserch of the last three dacades sujest that “exposure to communicative language instructions in general incease learners’ level attainment.

The rate of acquisition and level in a language is enhanced by instructions.

Error treatment and focus on language forms appear to be more effective when it is into a communicative, learner-centered, and least effective when error trearment is a dominant pedagogical feature “neardenthal” practice occupying the focal attention of the students.

Few reasearch identify which learners are more ready to internalize FFI.

Explicit instructions result more appropriate for easily stated grammar rules and implicit instructions result more successful for more complex rules.

Certain learners clearly benefit more than others from FFI. Analitic, field-dependent, left-brain-oriented learners internalize explicit FFI better than relational, field-dependent, right-brain-oriented learners.

The teacher needs to develop the intuition, through experience and solid eclectic theoretical foundations, for ascertaining what kind of corrective feedback is appropriate at a given moment, and what kind of uptake should be expected.

Should a teacher interrupt learners in the middle of an attempt to communicate?

Should a teacher choose, say, a recast over an elicitation?

Should beginning learners be given less corrective feedback than advanced?