The Effect of Self-correction on Oral Performance: The Use of Software versus Printed Sources

The emphasis that has been recently placed on learner-centered approaches toward error correction made many researchers investigate the effectiveness of self-correction in improving oral performance of language learners. However, the approaches that they can adopt for the correction have not been studied yet. So, the present research attempts to compare the effect of two approaches toward self-correction; using software versus printed sources on the oral performance of language learners. To this aim, 36 intermediate language learners attending at an English language institute selected based on oxford placement test were divided into two groups. In both groups, the teacher asked the learners to present a story while their voices were recorded. The teacher scored the first performances of the two groups by deducting one point for each grammatical error. Then, the learners of one group were asked to correct the errors of their transcribed output using printed sources while the other group took advantage of software for error correction. After 3 weeks, both groups presented that story again and their second performances were scored. Their first and second performances scores were subjected to paired and independent t-test. The result indicated that although both approaches were helpful in improving their scores, using software led to a better result. The result of this study provides insights into self-correction and how technology can support this process for a better result. In addition, the finding of this study has implications for language teachers and learners which would be discussed.

Keywords:

oral performance , transcription , self-correction , software