Chapter I. The role of feedback in learning english as a second language

1.2The role of Feedback in language learning process 
In order to see what words the students have learned, tests and 
essays can be used to measure their ability, knowledge or performance.
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One important part of assessment is giving feedback, and according to 
both Ur and Chandler , getting feedback is integral to the learning process.
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Making students aware of a mismatch between their interlanguage and 
the target language might well assist their second language acquisition. The 
purpose of teacher feedback, as described by Hattie and Timperly, is to give 
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(Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010: 5) 
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(Ur, 2012: 50; Chandler, 2003: 290) 

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the learner information regarding aspects of his or her performance. One 
important aspect of being a teacher is to give students feedback on the 
strengths and weaknesses of their work, combined with suggestions for 
improvement. According to Hyland and Hyland, this kind of individualized 
attention, which is rarely possible under normal classroom conditions, is 
one of the ESL teacher's most important tasks. The purpose of the feedback 
is to fill the gap between what the student understands, i.e. the level where 
the student is at the moment and what is aimed to be understood, i.e. the 
level which the student is aiming to reach . 
Corrective feedback is the type of feedback that follows on an 
incorrect answer or response. The term 
corrective feedback 
has been used 
as an umbrella term in second language acquisition literature to cover 
negative feedback
, 
error treatment 
and 
error correction 
. This paper will 
investigate this kind of feedback relating to vocabulary errors. 
Almost everybody, like myself, has memories of their personal writing 
smothered down with the teacher's coloured pen. However, errors as such are 
interesting to study. Firstly, they are visible features of learner language. 
Secondly, they give teachers useful information about what errors learners make. 
Thirdly, self-correcting errors may actually help learners in the acquisition 
process . Errors are a natural part of a learner’s interlanguage
, 
and corrective 
feedback might contribute to correctness regarding vocabulary in the target 
language . However, corrective feedback can lower students' self-esteem, 
which can be a problem as motivation plays a key role in the student's learning. 
The feedback that is given has to strike a balance between motivating the student 
and focusing on what the student needs to improve. This can be a difficult balance 
to keep . 
One distinction that can be made is the one between 
direct 
and 
indirect 
feedback . When the teacher gives the student writer the correct 
form, direct feedback is given. Direct feedback can appear in various 
forms, including crossing out an unnecessary word, phrase or morpheme, 

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inserting a missing word or morpheme, or writing the correct word near the 
incorrect form, e.g., above it or in the margin. This implies that the student 
only needs to copy the correction into the final version of the text. Indirect 
feedback means that the teacher signals in some way that an error has been 
made but does not provide the correction. The teacher lets the writer know 
by means of an underline, circle, code or other mark that there is a problem 
but leaves it to the student to solve it.
5
5
(Ferris, 2006: 83) 

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Researchers have suggested that indirect error feedback is preferable because 
it forces students to engage and helps them to develop skills as self-editors. 
However, it has also been suggested that students at lower levels of L2-proficiency 
may not be able to self correct errors due to limited linguistic knowledge. That is 
why a careful combination of direct and indirect feedback may be most helpful to 
students . Hattie and Timperly as well as Chandler stress the fact that students 
need to do something with the error feedback besides receiving it, because that 
seems to be a crucial factor in learning.