ELT Journal Advance Access originally published online on August 20, 2008
ELT Journal 2009 63(3):195-203; doi:10.1093/elt/ccn042
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
‘Very good’ as a teacher response
Jean Wong is an Associate Professor at The College of New Jersey. Her work has appeared in Applied Linguistics, Research on Language and Social Interaction, International Review of Applied Linguistics, Issues in Applied Linguistics, and in edited volumes (Gardner and Wagner 2004; Richards and Seedhouse 2005; Bowles and Seedhouse 2007). Her research inquiries include how to use conversation analysis (CA) as a resource for understanding interaction and advancing issues and concerns in language pedagogy
Hansun Zhang Waring is a lecturer in Linguistics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she teaches Conversation Analysis and Speaking Practicum, among other courses. Her work has appeared in Applied Linguistics, Journal of Pragmatics, Research on Language and Social Interaction, Discourse Studies, Text and Talk, and Journal of Sociolinguistics. She is currently interested in using CA to examine instructional practices and their relevance to learning opportunities
Email: jwong{at}tcnj.edu
Email: hz30{at}columbia.edu
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Abstract |
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Much scholarly and pedagogical attention has been devoted to corrective feedback. In this paper, we turn to positive feedback, and in particular, call for a reconsideration of teachers’ use of explicit positive assessments such as ‘very good’. Based on examples from an ESL classroom, we show that utterances such as ‘very good’ may have the potential of inhibiting learning opportunities within particular pedagogical contexts. We then broaden our discussion by offering a range of suggestions for managing the complexities of positive feedback in the language classroom.