The comparative effectiveness of recasts and prompts in second language classrooms

Abstract

Focusing on two types of corrective feedback strategies in second language classrooms, namely recasts and prompts, the current paper claims that the comparative effectiveness of recasts and prompts is an area of great research value, for the following reasons: (1) theoretically, studies in this area can inform the issues such as the roles of input and output in second language learning and the cognitive roles of recasts and prompts in language learning; (2) pedagogically, research findings in this area may provide second language teachers with useful advice concerning their classroom error correction. Based on a critical review of existing research findings, two distinct research gaps are discussed: (1) the effect of recasts and prompts in promoting the learning of new linguistic features has rarely been explored and awaits future research attention; (2) the effect of recasts and prompts has rarely been examined from learners’ own perspectives and more studies in this direction are needed.