We examine the uptake of elaborative corrective feedback by 200 Spanish/Catalan primary school EFL learners using early reading development digital games over a year. Results will be discussed in relation to the role of corrective feedback in the context of digital games and how this may contribute to reading development.
In combination with instruction, corrective feedback can assist students in comprehension, engagement, and strategy development in L2 acquisition (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Li, 2010). Outcome feedback allows learners to understand whether they are correct or incorrect. Elaborative feedback provides more detail, reminding learners of the underlying processes behind the activities or encouraging them to use learning strategies. There is some evidence from Tutorial CALL and non-linguistic digital games that, for adult learners, more specific corrective feedback generally leads to better results and more self-correction (e.g. Hieft, 2002). This study is part of a European project called iRead which aims to create and test personalised learning technologies - tablet-based learning games and interactive e-books - to assist primary school children in their reading development. The system covers over 250 aspects of phonology, morphology, morphosyntax, and syntax which are involved in reading. In our study we investigate to what extent different types of feedback (outcome and elaborate) are taken up by around 200 10- and 11-year old Spanish/Catalan primary school children using the system for an hour a week for one academic year as part of their in-class EFL reading development. Data analytics from the games, including feedback type received, reaction times, and the impact of the feedback on subsequent responses will be presented. Results will be discussed in relation to the role of feedback in the context of multimedia digital games and how this may contribute to reading development. Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of educational research, 77(1), 81-112. Heift, T. (2002). Learner control and error correction in ICALL: Browsers, peekers, and adamants. Calico Journal, 295-313. Li, S. (2010). The effectiveness of corrective feedback in SLA: A meta[quotrightB?]
