The Role of Noticing in the Acquisition of the Past Tense Form in English through Oral Corrective Feedback

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of noticing triggered by oral corrective feedback on the accuracy of the use of the past tense form in English. The participants consisted of 105 students in Sabah, Malaysia. They were engaged in four communicative tasks during which they were provided with oral corrective feedback in the form of recasts or prompts. Noticing was assessed using immediate and delayed retrospective verbal reports. The learning outcomes of the corrective feedback intervention were measured using an oral and a written production test, and grammaticality judgment tests. The findings indicate that the effects of noticing were manifested in some of the tasks. In addition, noticing the rule appears to have a more durative effect on the acquisition of the past tense form. On the whole, higher levels of noticing appeared to increase the effectiveness of both explicit and implicit types of oral corrective feedback. The study suggests that higher levels of noticing triggered by oral corrective feedback are likely to promote the acquisition of English past tense forms and in view of this, this paper also presents implications for the practice of oral corrective feedback in the classroom.