Exploring teachers’ corrective feedback in EFL classrooms: Pre-service teachers’ reflections

Abstract

Despite the growing body of research on corrective feedback in foreign language learning, there remains a gap in understanding the specific strategies utilized by EFL teachers as observed by pre-service teachers firsthand. Based on the observed experiences of EFL pre-service teachers during their observational field teaching practice, this study aims to analyze how English teachers give their corrective feedback. This study employed a qualitative research approach with a case study design. Eleven Indonesian EFL pre-service teachers who had finished their field teaching practice were involved in the study. The qualitative data were gathered using reflective Focus Group Discussions (FGD) and semi-structured interviews. The result of qualitative data analysis revealed three emerging themes of teachers’ corrective feedback: explicit correction, recasting, and metalinguistic. The findings showed that teachers regularly use direct corrective feedback in their instructional context. These insights enable foreign language educators to choose appropriate feedback strategies based on learners’ needs, enhancing teaching practices, learner outcomes, and teacher training programs.

Keywords

• case study
• corrective feedback (cf)
• direct feedback
• efl pre-service teacher
• indirect feedback