ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the question of how learners respond when corrective feedback takes place in Japanese foreign language classrooms. 1 Studies of corrective feedback in second language classrooms have traditionally focused on the teacher-student exchange. Correcting errors is, after all, something that language teachers do. Researchers interested in teacher use of corrective feedback have questioned the effectiveness of the classroom correction of student errors. At one time, language learning was viewed as development of stimulus-response “habits,” and all errors were to be stamped out, with the idea that they could be prevented. In Japanese language teaching today, proponents of rigorous error correction work with the intent of preventing fossilization. 2 The necessity felt by some of correcting every error, however, lies in contrast with the results of studies of developmental sequences. These studies have found that learners follow predictable developmental paths, with nontarget-like forms along the way occurring as part of developmental stages that must be passed through on the way to acquiring the ability to use particular forms in target-like ways. For example, work on the development of negation in Japanese has shown that nontarget-like forms are part of a predictable developmental sequence on the way to acquisition of appropriate negation strategies (Kanagy, 1994, in press). However, variable success by learners in acquiring the target language has led researchers to consider how form-focused instruction or consciousness-raising activities might alter the path of second language acquisition (SLA; Doughty & Williams, 1998; Fotos, 1993). Corrective feedback is one way of focusing learner attention on second language (L2) grammatical form (Koyanagi, Moroishi, Muranoi, Ota, & Shibata, 1994; Lightbown & Spada, 1990).
