Recasts versus clarification requests: The relevance of linguistic target, proficiency, and communicative ability

Nadia Mifka-Profozic

doi:10.1515/iral-2019-0149

Abstract

Abstract This paper compares the effects of recasts and clarification requests as two implicit types of corrective feedback (CF) on learning two linguistic structures denoting past aspectual distinction in French, the passé composé and the imparfait. The participants in this classroom-based study are 52 high-school learners of French FL at a pre-intermediate level of proficiency (level B1 of CEFR). A distinctive feature of this study is the use of focused, context constrained communicative tasks in both treatment and tests. The paper specifically highlights the advantages of feedback using recasts for the acquisition of morpho-syntactically complex grammatical structures such as is the French passé composé. The study points to the participants’ communicative ability as an essential aspect of language proficiency, which seems to be crucial to bringing about the benefits of recasts. Oral communicative skill in a foreign language classroom is seen as a prerequisite for an appropriate interpretation and recognition of the corrective nature of recasts.

Highlights

Research so far has provided substantial evidence for the effectiveness of oral corrective feedback (CF) in language learning
Research questions were concerned with the effects of input-providing recasts and output-prompting clarification requests on L2 acquisition of French passé composé (PC) and IMP, as measured by oral production in context-constrained unscripted oral communicative tasks
The first hypothesis was confirmed: it predicted that recasts would be more effective for learning PC because of its morphologically complex form and higher levels of saliency

Summary

Introduction

Research so far has provided substantial evidence for the effectiveness of oral corrective feedback (CF) in language learning A range of factors have been considered as possible contributors to the mixed findings in classroom-based studies: starting from the type of instructional setting (Sheen 2004) and different methodologies employed in research on CF, namely the studies that involved development on the one hand and those that looked only at uptake on the other hand (Goo and Mackey 2013; Long 2007), to the prosodic and rhetoric characteristics of recasts (Egi 2007; Loewen and Philp 2006; Sheen 2006) and the linguistic focus triggering CF, e.g. lexis, grammar, or phonology (Mackey and Goo 2007) Both primary studies and meta-analytic syntheses have suggested that lexis and phonology are more likely than morpho-syntax to be amenable to CF (Carpenter et al 2006; Mackey et al 2000; Mackey and Goo 2007; Saito 2013). Grammar remains the area where discussion is still ongoing, with open questions relating to the influence that specific types of feedback may have on learning various grammatical features

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