Abstract:

This presentation discusses the case of Jameelah, a young Arab women who is learning English for Academic purposes in English as a foreign language environment (EFL). She is one of 15 other participants who I recruited to form 3 participating groups in my PhD research. My research questions investigate learners' three domains of engagement, namely affective, social and cognitive, with Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) when provided through different mediums and in different forms (types). I also look at the impact of different mediums and forms of WCF on the learning effects in the immediate and in the long term learning outcome.

The data for this research is collected through many methods, however I focus this presentation on the Think Aloud Protocol (TAP) because I believe it is the contribution of this research to the body of knowledge in this field and it is the one that is directly influenced by technology in my study. As far as the literature states, TAP has not been used before to investigate learners' engagement with WCF. The findings so far suggest that computer-mediated CF make learning retainable in the long term, had the learning happen in the learners' Zone of proximal development (ZPD).

Jameelah' case is presented to show the complexity of the three domains of engagement, what engagement really mean in such learning environment and how technology-enhanced WCF might ease some of the challenges EFL learners have with language learning especially through tailored WCF. Suggestions to improve WCF is mentioned as well.

Keywords:

Language learning, Written Corrective Feedback, technology-enhanced feedback, computer-mediated CF, think Aloud Protocol, learners' Engagement, ZPD.