Effects of Feedback Timing and Willingness to Communicate on the Acquisition of Simple Past Form

A remarkable body of empirical research within form-focused language teaching framework has examined the tripartite dimensions of corrective feedback, i.e., linguistic, contextual and individual aspects, in isolation. Nonetheless, a holistic understanding of the role of oral corrective feedback (CF) in the acquisition of L2 forms seems to rely on uncovering how these dimensions function in interaction with each other. The present study aimed to examine the differential effects of immediate and delayed feedback in the acquisition of English simple past form, and the hypothesized moderating effect of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) on the effectiveness of feedback timing. Sixty pre-intermediate-level Iranian EFL learners participated in an experiment as members of immediate and delayed feedback groups, and each learner was differentiated as either high-WTC or low-WTC, based on the result of WTC questionnaire. The pedagogical gains were assessed with a grammaticality judgment test at three different points of time, pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test. The results of a Two-way ANCOVA showed no significant difference between immediate and delayed CF in short-term and long-term acquisition. Despite the insignificant interaction effect witnessed between feedback timing and WTC, the findings demonstrated that learners with high-WTC in both groups outperformed slightly in comparison to low-WTC learners. The results are interpreted in light of the number and duration of feedback treatment sessions as well as the instruments used for measuring the acquisition outcome. It is suggested that further studies be conducted concerning the interactions between instructional, interactional and learner-internal aspects of CF functioning.