Abstract Book of the 9th International Conference on Research in Education
Year: 2025
DOI:
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Processing Written Corrective Feedback in Online Language Learning: Insights from Concurrent Think-aloud Protocols
Pedro Fernández-Michels
ABSTRACT:
Feedback in online language learning is often an important and powerful communication channel between teachers and learners in an otherwise potentially poor environment regarding social presence and interaction. In addition to the opportunities for interaction, feedback also must provide meaningful and understandable information about the learners’ actual quality of performance in regard to the stated learning goals, as well as indicate possibilities of further learning. Ideally, feedback fosters self-regulation, so that the learners see and use opportunities of improving their competence (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Nicol & McFarlane-Dick, 2006). However, written corrective feedback in online foreign language learning is heavily influenced by conventional, form-focused and teacher-centered processes of one-way information transaction. Large learner groups and time-constraints often contribute to the use of quick and easily delivered feedback. The paper shows results of a research project that intended to investigate commonly applied feedback modalities (direct feedback, indirect feedback, and screen-recorded oral feedback) regarding its affordances to trigger meaningful feedback processing and the use of self-regulation strategies. Based on a mixed-method research design, 33 screen-recorded think-aloud protocols were analyzed to understand the learners’ interaction with the three feedback modalities, and to identify the relations between the feedback’s characteristics and the learners’ approaches to feedback-revision. Results showed, among other aspects, clearly routinized feedback-revision in all three modalities, a strong trend to reflect about and analyze errors in direct feedback, clear inclinations to self-correct in indirect feedback, and salient examples of self-reflection and communicative elements in screen-recorded oral feedback. The findings indicate that each feedback modality offers unique affordances that influence learners’ approaches to feedback and revision. These insights can inform decision-making processes when selecting and designing feedback methods for both online and face-to-face language learning contexts.
keywords: online language learning, written corrective feedback, self-regulation, feedback-processing, think-aloud protocols