ABSTRACT

Feedback provided within Computer Assisted Language Instruction (CALI) has been investigated in SLA over the last 25 years (e.g., Cerezo, 2016). Heretofore, not many studies have established how L2 learners process such feedback. To probe whether depth of processing (DoP), situated within Leow’s (2015) model of the L2 learning process in ISLA, plays a role during feedback provision, this study revisited Hsieh (2007) to analyze the online attentional data in relation to type of feedback (implicit, explicit, and no-feedback) on the Spanish gustar (to like) provided during a computerized problem-solving task. Sixty-three beginning-level participants randomly assigned to different groups were statistically analyzed. The think-aloud protocols revealed that feedback, regardless of explicitness, significantly elicited a high level of DoP. There were also several protocols indicating a low level of DoP, which seems to signal a lack of constant higher level of cognitive processing of the written metalinguistic information provided. Some pedagogical implications are also provided.