Abstract:

This design-based research study investigates the instructional moves employed by novice online tutors to provide form-focused feedback to Belorussian college-level English language learners during written interactions in an online asynchronous language course. The investigation focused on the amount and effectiveness of implicit and explicit corrective feedback provided by instructors during online interactions. The findings of the study suggest that tutors mostly saw themselves as conversational partners and rarely provided form-focused feedback. By prioritizing communicative meaning-centered interaction, the novice online tutors missed plenty of opportunities to improve the quality of their students’ L2. Implications for more targeted forms of teacher preparation which expose novice online teachers to theory and practice of providing form-focused feedback are discussed.

Author: Denis Samburskiy, Joy Quah