Providing Effective Feedback in Online Language Courses for Adult Learners
“Feedback is widely believed to be central to student learning and achievement and perhaps almost as important as direct instruction and students’ prior cognitive abilities” (Hyland 180). As a type of interaction between teachers and students, feedback in online language learning environment “may be more important than in traditional classrooms” as the limitations of the format can hinder students’ performance (Motallebzadeh and Amirabadi 535). This study aims at investigating the forms and strategies of computer-aided and teacher online feedback that enhance students’ performance and motivation in German B1 courses. Using the data gathered with an online questionnaire, the study elicits the traits that are integral to effective feedback from the students’ perspective. According to the results, the most effective computer-aided online feedback is visualized through the check marks and percentage bars. 70% of the respondents find it motivating to have an unlimited number of attempts for platform-checked tasks and to be scored by their best attempt. Teacher online feedback is viewed as the most effective when given twice a week in the form of written comments with a focus on content and language accuracy. The students find it effective and motivating when such feedback includes encouragement, suggestions on how to improve language skills and the possibility to ask for clarifications by setting up a dialog.
Key words: computer-aided feedback, teacher feedback, second language acquisition, online
learning, language teaching and learning, motivation.
About Svetlana Smolina:
Svetlana Smolina is a second-year student of the master program “English-Speaking Cultures:
Language, Text, Media” at the university of Bremen. In 2018 she had a privilege to graduate from
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Saint-Petersburg, with honors degree of Bachelor
of Linguistics in English and Italian languages. The profile of her educational program was
“Theory and methods of teaching foreign languages and cultures”. Currently Svetlana’s field of
interest remains applied linguistics including such directions as teaching English as a foreign
language, corpus linguistics, cultural studies and language ideologies.
References:
Hyland, Ken. “Student Perceptions of Hidden Messages in Teacher Written Feedback.” Studies in Educational Evaluation, vol. 39, no. 3, 2013, pp. 180–187., doi:10.1016/j.stueduc.2013.06.003.
Motallebzadeh, Khalil, and Somaye Amirabadi. “Online Interactional Feedback in Second Language Writing: Through Peer or Tutor?” Theory and Practice in Language Studies, vol. 1, no. 5, Nov. 2011, doi:10.4304/tpls.1.5.534-540.