An investigation on the teachers’ ways of providing feedback to correct students’ spoken errors in English in primary ESL classrooms in Hong Kong

The present research investigated the ways primary school teachers in Hong Kong correct pupils’ errors in English spoken utterances with corrective feedback. Ten local English teachers participated in the study. Through the use of two qualitative methods, i.e. classroom observations and interviews, the study addressed three major questions: (i) the types of errors which deserved more attention from teachers; (ii) the types of corrective feedback given with respect to each type of students’ errors; and (iii) the rationales behind teachers’ selection of corrective feedback strategies. The results revealed that teachers put more emphasis on semantic and lexical errors than phonological or syntactical errors, unless they adversely affected the interpretation of meaning. While recasts were favoured by most teachers to promote a supportive learning environment, it was recommended that prompts should be encouraged in order to provide capacities for students’ uptake which could benefit their language acquisition as a result of knowledge internalisation. A variety of corrective feedback strategies should be adopted, though different types of feedback would be helpful in different circumstances.