Roles for Corrective Feedback in Second Language Instruction

Abstract

The multifaceted roles of corrective feedback in second language instruction continue to attract the attention of both researchers and practitioners interested in how it can most effectively be integrated into classroom interaction in ways that benefit second language development. In contrast to theoretical arguments that a learner's underlying interlanguage system is affected only by positive evidence and not by negative evidence, other theoretical perspectives that run the gamut from cognitively to socially oriented suggest that corrective feedback is not only beneficial but may also be necessary for moving learners forward in their second language development. For example, a cognitive-interactionist perspective of second language acquisition attributes a role not only to positive evidence but also to negative evidence in the form of feedback that triggers noticing of nontarget output; skill acquisition theory attributes a pivotal role to feedback in tandem with practice that leads learners from effortful to more automatic use of the second language; and sociocultural theory views feedback as other-regulation that provides learners with dialogically negotiated assistance as they move toward more self-regulated use of the second language. Keywords: language teaching; language in the classroom; second language acquisition; teaching methods in applied linguistics