Students’ Uptake of Corrective Feedback

Abstract

In second language acquisition, errors by learners are seen as an indicator of progress in language.
However, errors must be properly treated. The treatment of error is possible through corrective feedback. In
view of the fact that present day language teaching is geared towards communicative competence, this
paper aims to show how students respond to corrective feedback. A writing task is administered to a class
of forty seven students. A pretest is given after an instructional lesson. Two weeks later, a post test is given
based on the language items provided in corrective feedback. The post test shows the response of the
students to corrective feedback. Consequently, the paper discusses factors that might have caused poor
response of the students after corrective feedback. The paper recommends a three prong approach in error
treatment: provision of good atmosphere for learning by the government, adoption of good learning
strategy by the students and the use of interactive feedback by teachers for the communicative
enhancement of learners.