Adult and Young Language Learner's Preferences for Oral Corrective Feedback

Recent interaction studies have focused on the relationship between interactional feedback and L2 development. Despite the large body of knowledge in this regard، few studies have examined learners’ preferences for interactional feedback. Besides، different findings have been reported concerning learners’ preferences for feedback and none has examined the factors accounting for the variation in the results. Thus، the present study considered the role of age in forming language learners’ preferences for oral corrective feedback. A feedback questionnaire was distributed among 136 language learners. The results confirmed the relationship between age of the learners and their preferences. While adults were more inclined towards only-teacher feedback، younger learners were more in favor of peer feedback. Adults also had a higher preference for implicit recast while younger learners were more positively oriented towards explicit recast. The results suggested the need for teachers to take into consideration learner characteristics and their perceptions when correcting their errors.