Corrective Feedback
One effective method for improving English Language Learners’ (ELLs) academic achievement is providing corrective feedback. It addresses misconceptions or mistakes made by pupils and is crucial for ELLs, as it enables them to identify and correct their errors, thereby enhancing their language ability (Allman, n.d.). Targeted, goal-referenced, and consistent feedback is necessary for corrective intervention. It should also constantly strike a balance between form, meaning, and appropriateness. It also needs to be specific, which implies that it should be clear, observable, actionable, and user-friendly.
Additionally, it must be differentiated, which means the instructor must decide if the mistake is linguistic or content-related to modify the feedback appropriately. It also needs to be timely, which means it needs to be ongoing, on schedule, and well-timed. Lastly, it’s essential to provide ELLs with encouraging feedback that is timely, continuous, and reliable (Allman, n.d.). Hence, feedback for ELLs must be targeted, balanced, specific, differentiated, timely, and supportive.
Explicit Feedback
Moreover, corrective feedback is divided into explicit and implicit subcategories. When a teacher corrects a student’s mistake, that is referred to as direct or explicit feedback. It is described as the teacher providing the pupil with the proper language form or structure above or near the linguistic error (Khadawardi, 2021). For writing assignments, for instance, it entails adding absent morphemes or removing unnecessary words, phrases, sentences, and other parts. It could take the form of a mini-lesson where the instructor and pupils collaborate to explain, practice, and go over the guidelines and illustrations. Therefore, giving a pupil direct feedback entails correcting their mistake and explaining why their response is unsatisfactory.
Indirect Feedback
Indirect feedback, however, requires a different approach in ELL instruction. It identifies the type of error and encourages students to find, investigate, and correct it (Khadawardi, 2021). Several methods can be used to communicate this: either highlighting or circling mistakes, noting their number in a specific part of the text, or using a code to indicate their location and nature. For example, a teacher can highlight students’ mistakes and then create a separate assignment where they correct them to illustrate their understanding. Therefore, indirect feedback identifies the student’s error while letting them determine what caused it and make the necessary corrections on their own.
References
Allman, B. (n.d.). Effective and Appropriate Feedback for English Learners. Edtechbooks.
Khadawardi, H. A. (2021). The effect of implicit corrective feedback on English writing of international second language learners. English Language Teaching, 14(1), 123-139.