摘要：Results from theory-driven research on error feedback are open to doubt as they come from comparing different techniques of error feedback under varying conditions. Using open-ended interviews and the sampling procedures of Grounded Theory, this article examines fifteen experienced EFL teachers’ perceptions to reveal the conditions that help teachers distinguish error feedback techniques to serve individual and group differences. The thoroughgoing coding system of the grounded theory method yielded a set of categories. Firstly, “Specialized Teacher Feedback” as the core category, together with sub-categories such as “Students’ Goal,” “Students’ Age Group,” and “Students’ Level of Language Mastery,” “Task Objective” and “Source of Error,” which justify, with the fewest possible categories, the conditions that determine the importance of error feedback. Further studies need to be conducted to discover more determining conditions in other contexts. This provides new impetus to turning the situated knowledge of feedback into a genuine understanding applicable to a wide array of professional EFL settings.
