Tracking Oral Accuracy Development in Adult EFL Learners: A Micro-genetic Analysis of Immediate and Delayed Corrective Feedback in IELTS Speaking Instruction

This study investigates the short-term development of oral accuracy in adult EFL learners under immediate and delayed corrective feedback during IELTS speaking instruction. Drawing on a micro-genetic perspective, eight pre-intermediate learners completed three consecutive IELTS Speaking tasks while receiving either immediate or delayed comprehensive feedback. Learners’ oral production was analyzed through fine-grained error tracking across grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, and individual error trajectories were traced across tasks to capture short-term developmental changes during classroom-based speaking practice. The results reveal substantial individual variability and non-linear change under both conditions. Overall, immediate feedback was observed to be associated with more pronounced short-term declines in grammar and pronunciation errors for some learners. In contrast, delayed feedback more often coincided with fluctuating trajectories and rebound patterns, particularly in pronunciation. Vocabulary development varied considerably across tasks and individual learners under both feedback conditions. These results suggest that the effects of corrective feedback timing on oral accuracy cannot be adequately understood through group-level comparisons alone. Instead, they emphasize the importance of examining learners’ developmental trajectories over time and offer actionable pedagogical implications for adult IELTS preparation, particularly regarding the need to differentiate feedback timing based on error domains and individual learner profiles.