Chapter published in:
Doing SLA Research with Implications for the Classroom: Reconciling methodological demands and pedagogical applicability
Edited by Robert M. DeKeyser and Goretti Prieto Botana
[Language Learning & Language Teaching 52] 2019
► pp. 107–126

Chapter 6
The effects of recasts versus prompts on immediate uptake and learning of a complex target structure

| University of Victoria

This study compared the effects of recasts and prompts on learning a complex target structure (English relative clauses). It also examined how these effects were mediated by learners’ level of language proficiency. Fifty-four high- and low-proficiency ESL learners were assigned to three groups: recast (n = 18), prompt (n = 18), and control (n = 18). Both uptake and pretest-posttest measures were used to assess feedback effectiveness. Each learner met with a native-speaker interlocutor outside the classroom four times over a four-week period for the pretest, treatment, and immediate and delayed posttests. Picture-cued oral production tasks were developed and used to elicit the use of relative clauses. The findings revealed an advantage for recasts over prompts, and also showed that the two feedback types varied in their effects on uptake versus learning and also interacted differently with learners’ levels of language proficiency. Although the study was conducted outside the classroom, the pedagogical relevance will be discussed.

Keywords: interactional feedback, recasts, prompts, complex target structures, English relative clauses
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The present study
  • Research questions
    • Participants
    • Target structure
    • Procedures
    • Outcome measures
  • Analysis
    • Identification of uptake and repair
    • Scoring the pretest-posttest oral production measures
  • Results
    • Learner uptake and repair
    • Pretest-posttest results
  • Discussion
  • Relevance for classroom instruction
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
Published online: 07 March 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.52.06nas
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