Reflection 1

The Contribution of Written Corrective Feedback to Language Development:    A Ten Month Investigation

By JOHN BITCHENER and UTE KNOCH

I would like to start my reflections with the acknowledgment of the significant role of applied linguistics which is a process of intellectual mediation between linguistics and pedagogy, whereby practical problems in which language is implicated are referred to theoretical ideas and, reciprocally, theoretical ideas are made relevant to the clarification of these problems. While reflecting upon the issues discussed in the classroom, I will focus on these clarifications as contributions to my understanding and knowledge of language learning and teaching.

Having read the article, I came to once again prove my beliefs about the corrective feedback to which I have always assigned a significant role in my teaching career. The article demonstrated this role stating that corrective feedback can have an influence on the long-term acquisition of certain linguistics forms. Although the study showed no differential effect of various types of feedback on accuracy development, I believe that the combination of written, oral corrective feedback and metalinguistic explanation could result in higher accuracy rates than any one of them separately. The other important implications were that we should adopt a targeted approach for a period of time and the error category to be focused on should be negotiated with learners. If we are able to provide additional feedback on more occasions, a high level of mastery is likely to be achieved in a shorter period of time.