Written corrective feedback in secondary education: Learners’ and teachers’ preferences and perceptions

Abstract

When dealing with written corrective feedback, most second-language acquisition research has focused on the comparison of different techniques to provide English as a foreign language learners with comments on their performance. Also finding the best strategy which would help learners improve has been on the spotlight. However, little attention has been placed upon learners’ perceptions and preferences towards the written feedback provided. This paper investigates such aspects by analysing results from a questionnaire delivered to 28 last year secondary-education learners and their two respective teachers. After analysing and comparing both groups of participants, results showed that, according to the learners, grammar and vocabulary take precedence over aspects related to organisation and paragraph construction. Moreover, a preference for direct and metalinguistic correction was also observed. Regarding teachers, their perceptions and preferences as observed in the questionnaire were not reflected in their actual teaching practice. Finally, even though there were points of agreement between teachers and their learners, a relevant mismatch on how written corrective feedback is and should be delivered was found.