English language teachers’ oral corrective preferences and practices across proficiency groups

Abstract

Studies on oral error correction in second language acquisition have been tilted towards cognitive aspects ignoring the affective and practical dimensions. This study attempted to fill this gap by investigating the role of students’ proficiency levels in five English language teachers’ corrective behavior. Follow-up interviews were conducted with the observed teachers. The results showed that the teachers provided more corrections to less proficient learners though they preferred more correction for advanced learners and used mainly recast for both groups, avoiding explicit forms of correction. They were mainly concerned with the affective aspects of oral error correction and acted on their own value system and teaching experience. The findings carry important implications for teacher education programs and the studies in this regard.