Learners' Proficiency Level and Teachers' Preferences for Oral Corrective Feedback: Orientation versus Implementation

The question of whether oral corrective feedback (CF) produces a positive impact on linguistic development has been the focus of recent interaction research. Despite the large body of knowledge in this regard, few studies have investigated the factors teachers take into account in correction particularly learners’ proficiency level. Accordingly, observations and interviews were used to examine Iranian EFL teachers’ attitude to oral CF and the role of proficiency level in their correction. Teachers’ preferences were compared with their actual practice to find the areas of mismatch and the possible reasons behind these mismatches. The participants included four observed and 26 non-observed teachers and their learners who were from two proficiency groups, lower-intermediate and advanced. The results confirmed the role of proficiency level in teachers' corrective behavior in different ways. Certain mismatches were also found between their beliefs and practice. The issues of concern and importance to teachers were found to be different from those of researchers being more emotional in nature. The results pointed to the need for making teachers aware of the cognitive aspects of learning from error correction in teacher education programs.