6 Assessing productive and interactive skills Personal refl ection

 
Assessing productive and interactive skills 
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it does not actually fulfi l the primary function of feedback: promoting 
effective learning. During the 1970s and 1980s, some researchers inferred 
from this that there is no benefi t in trying to correct learner language and 
that explicit correction might even impede natural, unconscious processes 
of language acquisition (Krashen and Terrell, 1983, 
Chapter 7
). However, 
more recently, it has been found that error correction and a ‘focus on 
form’ (Long and Robinson, 1998) can, indeed, be benefi cial. The reason 
why so much feedback is ignored by learners may be that it is not 
informative enough. If the correct answer is simply provided, there is no 
thinking for the learners to do and little opportunity to learn.
Ways that have been suggested to encourage refl ective thinking include 
allowing time for learners to self-correct and increasing