Feedback for language learning exercises on Livemocha.com

This report investigates the amount and types of feedback that are produced on the social language learning site Livemocha.com in response to learners’ written and oral productions. The data are 200 speaking and writing activity submissions with a total of 674 reviewer comments and 1,357 feedback tokens. Feedback is separated into 19 categories which take into account interpersonal communication as well as task-based and grammatical information. More than one-third of all feedback tokens consist of the reviewer encouraging, congratulating, or otherwise offering emotional support to the learner. This strongly indicates that Livemocha.com users are not solely focused on the mechanics of learning languages, but also are creating a welcoming community of practice.