Açıkkan’s thesis examines middle school EFL teachers’ beliefs about oral corrective feedback in form-focused instruction. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, Açıkkan presented a two-phase analysis of teachers’ beliefs and their origins, combining a Likert-scale questionnaire with follow-up interviews. Findings reveal generally positive but conditional beliefs, with teaching experience as their dominant source. The thesis contributes new insights into oral corrective feedback and teacher beliefs.
Title of Thesis: Middle School EFL Teachers’ Beliefs About Oral Corrective Feedback During Form-Focused Instruction: A Single Site Study
Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Duygu F. Şafak
Jury Members: Asst. Prof. Dr. Duygu F. Şafak, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ufuk Balaman (external), Asst. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Sak (external)
Defense Date: 28.08.2026
Thesis Abstract:
This study examines middle school English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ beliefs about oral corrective feedback (OCF) and explores the personal, professional, and contextual conditions underlying these beliefs. The study adopts a sequential mixed-methods design by drawing on Kartchava’s (2006) framework of teachers’ beliefs regarding OCF and Borg’s (2003) framework of teacher cognition. Quantitative data were collected through a 15-item Likert-scale questionnaire administered to 33 EFL teachers at a private middle school in Türkiye, and analysed using descriptive statistics, including composite means, standard deviations, and frequency of responses. Qualitative data were subsequently obtained through semi-structured interviews with a subgroup of 21 of participants and analysed thematically using a deductive and inductive coding scheme based on the aforementioned frameworks. Findings indicate that teachers held generally positive but conditional beliefs about OCF, favouring selective, context-sensitive, and affectively careful correction over one-way correction. Teaching experience emerged as the dominant source of these beliefs and professional training and teaching experience were believed to have a gap. Moreover, class size, time pressure, and assessment demands were identified as the primary contextual constraints shaping feedback decisions.
Keywords: oral corrective feedback, form-focused instruction, EFL teachers’ beliefs