The Effect of Teachers’ Corrective Feedback on Students’ Oral Performance: Case Study of First Year EFL Students at the University of Ain Temouchent

Abstract

The following research sheds light on teachers’ corrective feedback (CF) effect on students’ oral performance. The research aims to investigate teachers’ corrective feedback role in the evolution of the learners’ speaking skills. In order to test the hypotheses, the research is based on a mixed method approach, qualitative and quantitative, for data collection and analysis. It employed two research instruments; a questionnaire for first year LMD students of English at Belhadj Bouchaib University of Ain Temouchent and another questionnaire for Oral Comprehension and Production (CPO) teachers, to examine their opinions about the feedback provided by OE teachers. The second instrument was a classroom observation conducted during the second semester of the academic year 2022/2023 with first year LMD English students at Belhadj Bouchaib University. This observation helped gain a live data concerning the appropriate use of the teachers’ feedback, in addition to providing a general insight about the students’ reaction towards their OE teacher’s corrective feedback. According to the research results, corrective feedback from oral expression teachers improves students' speaking performances, especially when it is given during the production. However, if it is given improperly in the middle of the production, it will confuse the students and reduce their fluency. As a result, it is expected that both EFL students and oral expression teachers will value the importance of feedback and regard it as an integral part of their teaching-learning process.