Abstract

This study focused on the feedback practices that Deaf American Sign Language teachers used with hearing students, who are learning both a new second language (L2) and a new modality (signed versus spoken). Feedback is well-researched in the L2 teaching of spoken languages but is under-researched in sign languages, despite the growth in hearing adults’ enrollment in sign language courses (Bochner et al., 2011). Four introductory classes for university students taught by two instructors were observed for over 30 hours. An observation grid captured instances of feedback to handshape, movement, and place of articulation errors, challenging features for hearing students. The analyses examined types of feedback (based on Lyster and Ranta’s (1997) widely adopted categories), recourse to a spoken language (English) for explanations, and students’ responses (uptake) to the feedback. Teacher interviews probed perspectives on ASL acquisition, correction strategies and teaching philosophies. The findings revealed that, in contrast with research on spoken languages, i) reformulated utterances were the most common forms of feedback (direct corrections followed by recasts) and iii) students’ repetition of the reformulation was frequent. Prompts (elicitations and clarifications requests) and recourse to English were rare. The predominance of direct corrections is consistent with research on Australian sign language (Willoughby, Linder, Ellis and Fisher (2015), and adds new information on the efficacy of this type of feedback in terms of student responses. The results further our understanding of feedback in second language pedagogy in general, and point to several future directions for research on the teaching of signed languages.