Iraqi EFL teachers' and learners' preferences of corrective feedback in oral communication

This study investigates oral corrective feedback in an Iraqi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) setting by comparing learners' preferences with those of their teachers as well as comparing male and female learners' preferences. A parallel questionnaire including 36 items was administrated to 100 EFL learners and 52 EFL teachers. For further study, interviews were also conducted with 10 teachers and 10 learners. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyze the collected data. The quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS, and the qualitative data was analyzed by means of content analysis. The findings revealed that teachers and learners preferred teacher feedback, self-correction, immediate feedback, and students' responsibility for correction. Moreover, the most preferable type of corrective feedback among learners was elicitation. The results also confirmed that there exists a statistically significant difference between teachers' and learners' preferences of corrective feedback in oral communication skills as well as a statistically significant difference between learners' preferences based on gender. These similarities and differences between teachers' and learners' preferences may have a positive effect on language learning. Moreover, matching teachers' and learners' views on corrective feedback is important to the process of language learning because it can enhance the feedback and learning process. Keywords: Corrective feedback, oral corrective feedback, teacher feedback, types of feedback, preferences