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14 - Focused versus Unfocused Corrective Feedback

from Part IV - Feedback Provider, Feedback Intensity, and Feedback Timing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2021

By
Catherine van Beuningen
Edited by
Hossein Nassaji  and
Eva Kartchava
Hossein Nassaji
Affiliation:
University of Victoria, British Columbia
Eva Kartchava
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Ottawa
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Summary

A question that received considerable interest from language teachers and researchers alike is what corrective feedback (CF) should look like to be maximally beneficial to learners’ second language development. This chapter zooms in on two feedback types that have been distinguished in the CF literature: focused and unfocused CF. After a careful characterization of these two feedback options, theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical arguments are discussed for both of them. The chapter furthermore provides a synthesis of oral and written feedback studies into the (relative) value of focused and unfocused CF. It concludes with suggestions for further research and implications for L2 classrooms.

Keywords

Focused corrective feedbackunfocused corrective feedbackselective corrective feedbackcomprehensive corrective feedbackintensive corrective feedbackextensive corrective feedbackoral corrective feedbackwritten corrective feedbacksecond language acquisitionsecond language teaching
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Corrective Feedback in Second Language Learning and Teaching , pp. 300 - 321
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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