A study on oral corrective feedback preferences and learning styles of Turkish efl learners

The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate the preferences of EFL learners for oral corrective feedback in relation to their learning styles, and to determine whether there was a relationship between these two aspects of language learning. The research sample consisted of 348 preparatory class students who were studying English at A1, B1 and B2 levels at Gaziantep University- School of Foreign Languages in 2016-2017 academic year. A questionnaire was administered to explore oral corrective feedback preferences. The questionnaire included six sections, each of which referred to a sub-dimension of feedback preferences: (a) necessity of feedback, (b) frequency of feedback, (c) timing of feedback, (d) types of errors to be corrected, (e) types of feedback and (d) source of feedback. Learning styles of the participants were identified through Learning Style inventory developed by Kolb (1984). The data collected through these two instruments was analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 21.0). Frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation values were calculated for the analysis of the data, and a Chi-square test was employed to determine whether there was a relationship between preferences of the students for the six sub-dimensions of feedback preferences and their learning styles. Of all participants included in the study, 61 (17.5%) had diverger, 162 (46.6%) assimilator, 97 (27.9%) converger and 28 (8%) accommodator learning styles. According to the results, students believed that providing corrective feedback is necessary for their learning and they expect their teachers to provide feedback frequently. The participants had the idea that frequent and serious errors should be treated more often. Explicit feedback, clarification and elicitation were found to be the most popular types of feedback among learners. Teachers were the most favored source of feedback. When the learning styles of students were taken into consideration, it was determined that the difference between groups was not statistically significant. Overall preferences for oral corrective feedback were similar to the preferences of learners with different learning styles. This suggested that learning styles did not account for students' preference for a particular feedback type and provide an explanation in terms of learners' varied preferences for feedback. Considering proficiency levels, a significant difference among students with proficiency levels was found only in opinions about metalinguistic feedback and sources of feedback. It was concluded that the concept of learning styles may not work for every occasions and should not therefore be approached from a holistic point of view. Keywords: feedback preferences, language learning, learning styles