An exploratory case study into Chinese EFL teachers' commentary practices in oral presentation

Previous research has revealed that teacher feedback encourages students’ learning of a second language and improves task performance. While former quasi-experimental studies emphasized the positive effects of formative assessment and feedback by teachers on developing oral presentation competence, it remains unclear about the processes during which teachers provide feedback in the form of verbal comments on oral presentations. Therefore, this paper describes an exploratory case study that examines the nature and processes of three experienced EFL teachers’ commentary on students’ classroom oral presentations in a Chinese university. Data for this study were obtained from the teachers’ self-reported accounts of commentary experiences during semi-structured interviews. Findings showed that the three teachers’ comments on oral presentations were feedback-focused in nature; however, they diversified their comments in terms of delivery mode, function and focus. The study has implications for future teacher feedback research and EFL classroom practice with regard to the ways in which teachers provide feedback on oral presentation tasks