Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T03:02:44.142Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

REEXAMINING THE ROLE OF RECASTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2006

Rod Ellis  and
Younghee Sheen
Rod Ellis
Affiliation:
University of Auckland
Younghee Sheen
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recasts have continued to be the object of intensive empirical and theoretical inquiry following Nicholas, Lightbown, and Spada's (2001) review. The current article identifies a number of problems with this research and the supporting theory. These problems concern the fact that recasts can take many different forms and perform a variety of functions (not all corrective), which makes definition difficult. Also, recasts, when corrective, can vary in terms of whether they constitute an implicit or explicit corrective strategy and in whether they afford negative or positive evidence. Researchers have almost exclusively examined recasts from a cognitive perspective, ignoring their social and sociocognitive aspects. The significance of learner repair following recasts also remains controversial. Little is currently known about the role that the learner's developmental readiness plays in determining whether recasts work for acquisition. Researchers have not clearly distinguished between intensive and extensive recasts, nor have they considered their differential benefits. The acquisitional value of recasts in comparison to other forms of corrective feedback might have been overestimated. This article emphasizes the need for research that examines the specific properties of recasts and the social and instructional conditions in which they occur.We would like to thank various people for their comments on draft versions of this article: Rob Batstone, Shawn Loewen, Alison Mackey, Jenefer Philp, Elaine Tarone, and two anonymous SSLA reviewers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 575 - 600
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ayoun, D. (2004). The effectiveness of written recasts in the second language acquisition of aspectual distinctions in French: A follow-up study. Modern Language Journal, 88, 31–55.Google Scholar
Batstone, R. (2002). Contexts of engagement: A discourse perspective on ‘intake’ and ‘pushed output.’ System, 30, 1–14.Google Scholar
Bigelow, M., delMas, R., Hansen, K., & Tarone, E., (in press). Literacy and oral recasts in SLA. TESOL Quarterly.
Braidi, S.M. (2002). Reexamining the role of recasts in native-speaker/nonnative-speaker interactions. Language Learning, 52, 1–42.Google Scholar
Carroll, S. (2001). Input and evidence: The raw material of second language acquisition. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Carroll, S. & Swain, M. (1993). Explicit and implicit negative feedback: An empirical study of the learning of linguistic generalizations. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 357–386.Google Scholar
DeKeyser, R. (1993). The effect of error correction on L2 grammar knowledge and oral proficiency. Modern Language Journal, 77, 501–514.Google Scholar
DeKeyser, R. (1998). Beyond focus on form: Cognitive perspectives on learning and practicing second language grammar. In C. J. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 42–63). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Doughty, C.J. (2001). Cognitive underpinnings of focus on form. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and SLA (pp. 206–257). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Doughty, C.J. & Varela, E. (1998). Communicative focus on form. In C. J. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 114–138). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ellis, N.C. (1996). Sequencing in SLA: Phonological memory, chunking, and points of order. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 18, 91–126.Google Scholar
Ellis, N.C. (2005). At the interface: How explicit knowledge affects implicit language learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 305–352.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (1993). Second language acquisition and the structural syllabus. TESOL Quarterly, 27, 91–113.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. (1994). The study of second language acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ellis, R., Basturkmen, H., & Loewen, S. (2001). Learner uptake in communicative classrooms. Language Learning, 51, 281–318.Google Scholar
Ellis, R., Loewen, S., & Erlam, R. (2006). Implicit and explicit corrective feedback and the acquisition of L2 grammar. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 339–368.Google Scholar
Farrar, M.J. (1992). Negative evidence and grammatical morpheme acquisition. Developmental Psychology, 28, 90–98.Google Scholar
Firth, A. & Wagner, J. (1997). On discourse, communication, and (some) fundamental concepts in SLA. Modern Language Journal, 81, 285–300.Google Scholar
Gass, S.M. & Mackey, A. (2000). Stimulated recall methodology in second language research. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Goldschneider, J. & DeKeyser, R. (2005). Explaining the “natural order of L2 morpheme acquisition” in English: A meta-analysis of multiple determinants. Language Learning, 55, 27–77.Google Scholar
Han, Z. (2002). A study of the impact of recasts on tense consistency in L2 output. TESOL Quarterly, 36, 543–572.Google Scholar
Hauser, E. (2005). Coding ‘corrective recasts’: The maintenance of meaning and more fundamental problems. Applied Linguistics, 26, 293–316.Google Scholar
Havranek, G. & Cesnik, H. (2001). Factors affecting the success of corrective feedback. In S. H. Foster-Cohen & A. Nizegorodcew (Eds.), EUROSLA yearbook, 1, (pp. 99–122). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Ishida, M. (2004). Effects of recasts on the acquisition of the aspectual form of -te i (ru) by learners of Japanese as a foreign language. Language Learning, 54, 311–394.Google Scholar
Iwashita, N. (2003). Negative feedback and positive evidence in task-based interaction: Differential effects of L2 development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25, 1–36.Google Scholar
Leeman, J. (2003). Recasts and L2 development: Beyond negative evidence. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25, 37–63.Google Scholar
Lennon, P. (1989). Introspection and intentionality in advanced second-language acquisition. Language Learning, 39, 375–395.Google Scholar
Loewen, S. (2005). Incidental focus on form and second language learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27, 361–386.Google Scholar
Loewen, S. & Philp, J., (in press). An indepth analysis of recasts in the adult L2 classroom. Modern Language Journal.
Long, M.H. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In W. R. Ritchie & T. K. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 413–468). San Diego: Academic Press.
Long, M.H. (2006). Problems in SLA. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Long, M.H., Inagaki, S., & Ortega, L. (1998). The role of implicit negative feedback in SLA: Models and recasts in Japanese and Spanish. Modern Language Journal, 82, 357–371.Google Scholar
Long, M.H. & Robinson, P. (1998). Focus on form: Theory, research, and practice. In C. J. Doughty & J. Williams (Eds.), Focus on form in classroom second language acquisition (pp. 15–41). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lyster, R. (1998a). Negotiation of form, recasts, and explicit correction in relation to error types and learner repair in immersion classrooms. Language Learning, 48, 183–218.Google Scholar
Lyster, R. (1998b). Recasts, repetition, and ambiguity in L2 classroom discourse. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 51–81.Google Scholar
Lyster, R. (2004). Differential effects of prompts and recasts in form-focused instruction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 26, 399–432.Google Scholar
Lyster, R. & Ranta, L. (1997). Corrective feedback and learner uptake: Negotiation of form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19, 37–66.Google Scholar
Mackey, A., Gass, S.M., & McDonough, K. (2000). How do learners perceive interactional feedback? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22, 471–497.Google Scholar
Mackey, A., Oliver, R., & Leeman, J. (2003). Interactional input and the incorporation of feedback: An exploration of NS-NNS and NNS-NNS adult and child dyads. Language Learning, 53, 35–66.Google Scholar
Mackey, A. & Philp, J. (1998). Conversational interaction and second language development: Recasts, responses, and red herrings? Modern Language Journal, 82, 338–356.Google Scholar
Nabei, I. & Swain, M. (2002). Learner awareness of recasts in classroom interaction: A case study of an adult EFL student's second language learning. Language Awareness, 11, 43–63.Google Scholar
Nelson, K., Denninger, M., Bonvillian, J., Kaplan, B., & Bake, N. (1983). Maternal input adjustments and non-adjustments as related to children's advances and to language acquisition theories. In A. Pellegrini & T. Yawkey (Eds.), The development of oral and written language in social contexts (pp. 31–56). Westport, CT: Ablex.
Nicholas, H., Lightbown, P.M., & Spada, N. (2001). Recasts as feedback to language learners. Language Learning, 51, 719–758.Google Scholar
Norris, J. & Ortega, L. (2000). Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis. Language Learning, 50, 417–528.Google Scholar
Ohta, A.S. (2000). Rethinking recasts: A learner-centered examination of corrective feedback in the Japanese language classroom. In J. K. Hall & L. S. Verplaeste (Eds.), The construction of second and foreign language learning through classroom instruction (pp. 47–71). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Oliver, R. (2000). Age differences in negotiation and feedback in classroom and pairwork. Language Learning, 50, 119–151.Google Scholar
Ortega, L. & Long, M.H. (1997). The effects of models and recasts on object topicalization and adverb placement in L2 Spanish. Spanish Applied Linguistics, 1, 65–86.Google Scholar
Panova, I. & Lyster, R. (2002). Patterns of corrective feedback and uptake in an adult ESL classroom. TESOL Quarterly, 36, 573–595.Google Scholar
Philp, J. (2003). Constraints on “noticing the gap”: Non-native speakers' noticing of recasts in NS-NNS interaction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 25, 99–126.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. (2001). Attention. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 3–32). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Schwartz, B. (1993). On explicit and negative evidence effecting and affecting competence and “linguistic behavior.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 147–163.Google Scholar
Sheen, Y. (2004). Corrective feedback and learner uptake in communicative classrooms across instructional settings. Language Teaching Research, 8, 263–300.Google Scholar
Sheen, Y. (2006). Exploring the relationship between characteristics of recasts and learner uptake. Language Teaching Research, 10, 361–392.Google Scholar
Sheen, Y., (in press). The effects of corrective feedback, language aptitude and learner attitudes on the acquisition of English articles. In A. Mackey (Ed.), Conversational interaction in second language acquisition: A series of empirical studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Swain, M. (1995). Three functions of output in second language learning. In G. Cook & B. Seidlhofer (Eds.), For H. G. Widdowson: Principles and practice in the study of language (pp. 125–144). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tarone, E. & Bigelow, M. (2005). Impact of literacy on oral language processing: Implications for SLA research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 25, 77–97.Google Scholar
Williams, J. (2001). The effectiveness of spontaneous attention to form. System, 29, 325–340.Google Scholar