Teacher practices and student preferences of oral corrective feedback in Indonesian EFL classrooms: A Vygotskian perspective

Oral corrective feedback (OCF) is considered a salient pedagogical process which teachers use to assist students to enhance their language learning. Less is known about which feedback practices students prefer or consider effective for particular language learning processes. From a sociocultural perspective, this study investigated the extent of congruency between teacher practices and student preferences for OCF in Islamic Senior High Schools in Indonesia. Using a mixed-methods approach, quantitative data were collected from 444 students using a five-point Likert scale and administered across one province. Complementary data were collected from classroom observations, teacher interviews and student focus groups. The analyses of these multiple datasets illustrate that teacher practices are not congruent with student preferences for OCF. Findings show that students favour feedback on vocabulary errors, whereas in practice, teachers respond more often to pronunciation errors. Students prefer negotiated feedback, but in practice teachers mostly use clarification requests. The groups are aligned in relation to one area; students indicate a preference for teacher feedback, likewise teachers’ practice demonstrably favours teacher feedback. Pedagogically, the findings indicate a need for teachers to transform their conceptual understanding and practices of OCF to better support student collaboration and mutual meaningful scaffolding for L2 development.