Author: Sidney Martín Mota
Programme: Doctoral Programme in Education and ICT  (e-learning)
Language: English
Supervisor: Dr Anna Espasa Francesc Saigí Rubió and Dr Ibis Marlene Alvarez Valdivia

Faculty / Institute: UOC Doctoral School
Subjects: Education
Key words: feedback, video feedback, language learning, pronunciation, foreign language anxiety

Area of knowledge: e-Learning 

+ Link to the project

Summary

Despite many studies about video feedback in both face-to-face and online settings, little research has been carried out exploring how this technique is perceived by students learning the pronunciation of specific sounds in a foreign language. Adopting grounded theory as the methodology and a dialogic feedback approach as the conceptual framework, the present study shows that anxious and non-anxious students welcome video feedback. The design of a learning activity for students to practise a specific problematic pronunciation target in English, carried out in an e-learning environment, more specifically in an online English language course, is described. The results show three aspects of teacher's corrective video feedback, perceived as more relevant: the Emotional input of feedback, referred to the feelings around the feedback delivery which foster dialogue, closeness, motivation and empathy; Enhanced understanding, related to the clarity, the usability and personalization of the feedback; and Feedback engagement, which are the conditions favouring agentic engagement where students share the responsibility for making feedback processes effective. The design of the learning activity was also validated by a group of experts whose opinions were collected by way of a focus group. Implications related to video feedback practices are also discussed.