What Is the Ideal Time to Provide Corrective Feedback? An Approximate Replication of Li, Zhu, and Ellis (2016)

Abstract This replication study examines feedback timing in vocational language learners and verifies the hypothesis that the advantage of immediate over delayed feedback found in the original study (Li, Zhu, & Ellis, 2016) is due to practice opportunities in immediate feedback. Participants were 186 first‐year ESL learners at a vocational college. Four experimental groups performed two dictogloss tasks and received immediate feedback (during tasks), delayed feedback (after both tasks), interim feedback (between tasks), or no feedback (task only) on their wrong use of the English passive voice. A fifth (control) group received no instructional treatment. Results showed an advantage for interim over delayed feedback for explicit knowledge on the immediate posttest, comparable performance for interim and immediate feedback, and no notable gains in implicit knowledge for any group. The benefits of interim feedback are discussed from the perspectives of engagement, cognitive load, feedback–practice juxtaposition, and integration of form‐focused instruction in task repetition.