Graduation Year

2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Granting Department

Secondary Education

Major Professor

Antony K. Erben, Ph.D.

Keywords

Chat, Peer feedback, Error types, Special education needs, Clarification request, Elicitation, Explicit correction, Metalinguistic feedback, Recast, Repetition, Education in Slovenia, Middle school, High school

Abstract

This mixed methods research study centers on learner-learner interactions; thus, contributing to the on-going investigation within negotiation and interaction, computer-mediated-communication and its role in second language learning. The specific aim was to investigate corrective feedback types, incidences, and the relationship between error and feedback type among peers within online synchronous environments in EFL classes in Slovenia, Europe. Interactional characteristics of corrective feedback with learners having a documented special need (SN) also were explored using qualitative analyses. The study encompassed 208 students that were randomly placed into 104 dyads within intact classes of Grades 7, 8, 10, and 11. There were 32 dyads in Grade 7, 16 dyads in Grade 8, 24 dyads in Grade 10, and 32 dyads in Grade 11. Three participants had a documented special need. Quantitative analysis did not reveal statistical significant difference in the incidence of corrective feedb

feedback and grade level, the relationship among the type of corrective feedback and grade level, or the relationship between learner error and type of corrective feedback across grade levels. Corrective feedback types were similar to those studied in traditional classroom research (i.e., explicit corrections, recasts, negotiation of form). However, descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses revealed conversational techniques that are specific to text-based online discourses providing insight into interactional characteristics among interactants within a discourse environment that differs both from speech and written texts. Consequently, an additional corrective feedback type emerged from the data, coded as feedback request. The most frequent corrective feedback type provided was explicit corrections. Frequency data revealed that corrective feedback tended to decrease as the grade level increased. Data with SN learners indicated distinctive discourse techniques.Overall, low incidences

of corrective feedback and error types might have been affected by the learner's developmental levels, social readiness, and/or psychological readiness (Oliver, 1998), as well as the learner's individual conversational styles and socio-cultural factors. Consequently, further research is warranted in examining these factors. In addition, longitudinal studies are warranted in examining whether online negotiated work lead towards L2 acquisition. Finally, the role of phantom corrective moves when coding qualitative online text data also need to be examined further.

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