The interplay between corrective feedback timing and foreign language anxiety in L2 development

Recent research indicated the effectiveness of immediate and delayed corrective feedback (CF) on second language (L2) learning. What is little known is the moderating effects of learner individual factors such as foreign language anxiety (FLA) on the efficacy of immediate and delayed CF. The primary aim of the present study is thus to investigate if learners’ FLA can moderate the effectiveness of immediate and delayed feedback. To this end, 82 learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were randomly assigned to two treatment conditions as well as a control group. During three treatment sessions, the participants performed storytelling tasks in groups of four and received either immediate or delayed metalinguistic feedback for the errors they made. Regarding the immediate feedback condition, each participant received metalinguistic feedback immediately following an error while doing the storytelling task. For the delayed feedback condition, metalinguistic feedback was offered for each error at the end of each storytelling task. Two testing instruments, a writing task and an error correction test were used as pretest, posttest and delayed posttest to measure learners’ development as a result of the treatment sessions. Without considering learners’ FLA, the findings revealed that immediate and delayed CF are equally effective to promote L2 development. However, when taking into consideration learners’ FLA through regression analysis, the results revealed that immediate CF was more beneficial for learners with low FLA compared to high anxiety learners, but no significant associations were found between FLA and delayed CF efficacy.