Researching Oral Feedback in the Foreign Language Classroom

Oral feedback to learners in foreign language learning has been in the focus of attention of researchers for a long time. While research in second language acquisition (SLA) has classified various types of oral corrective feedback and explored their perceptions by learners (e.g. Ellis & Sheen, 2006) as well as their effectiveness (e.g. Lyster & Ranta, 1997; Lyster & Saito, 2010), the role of oral feedback has also been discussed in the context of general pedagogy, where it has been promoted as an integral part of formative assessment, or assessment for learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Boud & Falchikov, 2006; Carless, 2006, 2007). According to the latter view, oral feedback is regarded as a form of assessment of learner performance, which can be characterised by a collaborative and interaction-based approach and is expected to be meaningful, constructive and motivating for learners. In this paper, an attempt is made to relate the SLA findings to general pedagogy in order to make recommendations for the use of oral corrective feedback in the foreign language classroom.