ABSTRACT
Using tutor and student teacher evaluations, a contrastive Positive and Less Positive Corpus analysis reveals that while there are many similarities in both sub-corpora, there are also some signifi cant differences, mainly in language which operates primarily at the relational and face-saving levels. A fi nal on-line survey addressing general issues around the TP and feedback context revealed some interesting fi ndings. While there is a clear recognition of the purpose and benefi ts of feedback, there is equally an appreciation that there is potential for negative impact, particularly after a critical
point during the cycle, which may be different for various student teachers and dependent on their background and also their personal characteristics. Feedback which is more immediate and delivered in both spoken and written modes is deemed to be more advantageous, and a number of specifi c topics and behaviours are deemed inappropriate for this context. Throughout the survey results, there is an underlying recognition of the more dominant and institutionally authoritative role afforded to the tutor in feedback interactions. A number of relevant issues have surfaced from the range of investigations that have been conducted on the discourse of feedback and these will be discussed in the fi nal sections of this book.
