Abstract
Research on corrective feedback (CF) and language teachers’ beliefs and practices on the provision of CF has been limited to learners’ errors with grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary (non-formulaic). Consequently, teachers’ beliefs and practices about treating learners’ errors with formulaic sequences (FSs) including idioms, collocations, lexical bundles, and compounds (formulaic) have not been investigated. This study examined three Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ stated beliefs and practices on treating learners’ formulaic vs. non-formulaic errors through incidental reactive focus on form. The teachers’ stated beliefs about the provision of CF for formulaic vs. non-formulaic errors were elicited through a questionnaire and stimulated recall interviews, and their practices were examined by drawing on 36 hours of audio- and video-recorded classroom interactions in primarily communicative activities. The findings indicated that while learners made more errors with FSs than non-formulaic forms, teachers corrected non-formulaic errors, by far, more frequently than formulaic errors. The teachers did not seem to be fully cognizant of the extent to which they treated formulaic vs. non-formulaic errors. The consistencies and inconsistencies between the teachers’ stated CF beliefs and their treatment of formulaic vs. non-formulaic errors are discussed.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Second language classes, Error treatment, ESL teachers
