A Comparative Study of Teacher Feedback and Chatbot Feedback on Second Language Learners’ Pragmalinguistic and Sociopragmatic Competences

This study examines the effectiveness of teacher feedback versus chatbot feedback on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic performances. Eighty-seven intermediate-level university learners were randomly assigned to teacher feedback (TF), chatbot feedback (CF), and control (CO) groups. During a 5-week treatment, the instructor delivered metapragmatic instruction on requests in each treatment session, followed by the participants completing three discourse completion tests (DCTs). Upon completing each DCT task, based on their group assignment, each group received feedback from either the teacher or a chatbot on their pragmalinguistic inaccuracies and sociopragmatic deviations. Analysis of pretest and post-test scores using t-tests and ANCOVA indicated improvements of both experimental groups. Although there was no significant difference in sociopragmatic gains between the groups, the CF group yielded better pragmalinguistic gains. The qualitative data from semi-structured interviews revealed students' perceptions of affordances and limitations of chatbots in learning L2 pragmatics. Pedagogical implications for second language (L2) pragmatic instruction were discussed.