Teaching Technical English: Corrective Feedback Based on Students’ and Teachers’ Beliefs

Abstract

The present study investigates the beliefs of students and teachers about corrective feedback (CF) regarding necessity, timing and the most effective types in technical English setting. This study was conducted at the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” with students majoring in Information Technology, Mathematics or Physics ranged between 18 and 22 years of age. Methods included a questionnaire, interviews and classroom observations. The feedback from 55 students and 33 teachers was collected during practical classes in February – March at the beginning of the second semester of 2019-2020 academic year. This research has confirmed the necessity of CF for students and teachers. It also demonstrated the differences regarding timing: teachers preferred delayed to immediate CF, while students equally appreciated both. The research also indicated that both teachers and students preferred indirect types of CF; teachers had stronger attitudes though. The research demonstrated the most effective types of CF for students: meta-linguistic clue and repetition, while for teachers it was elicitation. Completing the survey, both teachers and students chose at least two different types of CF. The necessity of effective CF, which requires learning more about students’ and teachers’ beliefs, benefits and drawbacks of each CF type, is emphasized. The results of the present research may be used by practitioners, who would like to use CF effectively in teaching technical English. Future studies may explore CF in terms of students’ and teachers’ beliefs and behavior in different learning environments.

Keywords

• corrective feedback (cf)
• recast
• explicit correction
• meta-linguistic clue