IMPACT OF CLASSROOM DYNAMICS ON THE

EFFECTIVENESS OF RECASTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

By:Frank A Morris

Elaine E. Tarone

Long and Robinson (1995)-acquisition of L2 benefits most when L2 learners focus not on the linguistic form or communicative meaning alone but on BOTH.

The situation will occur in a variety of classroom activities, including when the learner’s conversational partner provide either implicit or explicit corrective feedback.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Recast ◦ A listener CORRECT reformulation◦ is one form of corrective feedback, ◦ Example: Yesterday, Ahmad go to the

supermarket.◦ Yesterday, Ahmad went to the

supermarket.◦ It has no explicit indication of an error.◦ Ambiguous◦ The interlocutor's supplying recast does not

guarantee a learner’s attentional shift to form-depends on the learner.

Long and Robinson (1998) call for studies in SLA that explore the causal relationship between Focus on Form (FonF), noticing and learning.

Crucial factor: Noticing or learner awareness of the feedback.

Learner needs:◦ to notice and accurately identify corrective

feedback received. ◦ to be able to compare form produced to the form

provided in the recasts. (“cognitive comparison”) (Doughty & Williams, 1998)

How to determine whether noticing has occurred?

Long & Robinson (1998) suggest debriefing questionnaires.

Stimulated recall interviews (Macay, Gass, & McDonough ,2000)

Both are limited as they depend on the learner’s ability to reconstruct thought processes after they have occurred.

If learning process is implicit, therefore this kind of measure is mismatched with regard to the process as it intended to measure.

Swain & Lapkin (1998) suggest that the tools used with an analysis of the language-related episodes occurring naturally in the interaction and assumed the researcher to pinpoint moments of attention to form concurrently.

How to identify the effectiveness of recasts? ◦ Need to establish whether learning has resulted

from the feedback.

◦ Uptake (learner’s repetition of the recast) is not an evidence of learning. (Lyster & Ranta, 1997)

◦ Mackay & Philip (1998); Morris (2002a) Learning may take place without uptake.

◦ Suggested instrument to be used: longer term measurement of learner’s acquisition of items on which they have received corrective feedback, post-test and delayed post-test. (Long & Robinson, 1998, p.40)

To understand how a person notice recast we need to understand these factors:

The speech style a speaker uses. Labov (1970)

Speech style:◦ Attention to language form◦ Attention to meaning

Important cognitive mechanism that influences learner’s variable attempts to be accurate when using L2.

Bell (1984) Attention is not solely cognitive. It is a construct that bridges the cognitive and the social.

What causes attention to shift?◦ Speaker’s responsiveness to the social

relationships among speakers.◦ Social context influences L2 leaner’s ability to

perceive accurately the corrective feedback provided.

How do these different contexts affect learner’s ability to accurately perceive recasts?◦ Nicholas et al. (2001) Classroom contexts make it

hard to identify recasts clearly as focused on form as opposed to content.

◦ If classroom is focused on language form, learners seem better to identify recasts as corrective feedback better.

◦ In general, more information on the contextual factors that need to be identify to facilitate the effectiveness of recasts.

It appears that in some of the factors there exist social relationships between students.

2 major social groupings emerged.◦ One with extensive usage of L2 in and outside

class◦ One used L2 strictly for academic purposes

These groups reluctant to work in pairs, if so the proficient one will exert power and ignored their partner’s contributions in problem solving interactions.

1. Does interpersonal conflict and negative social interaction take place in pair work in the class?

2. Do these negative social dynamics interfere with the L2 of pair work participants?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Classroom context◦ Data came from larger study (Morris, 2002a),

accelerated beginning Spanish foreign language course at a large Midwestern university.

◦ Meeting 3 days per week, with 50 minutes interaction each meeting.

METHODS

Participants◦ 10 particiapnts. ◦ Survey given to gather personal information.

Data Collection Procedures◦ 6th class period

Pretest Form pairs Posttest

◦ 13th class period Delayed posttest

◦ A week after Stimulated recall session

Tasks for pair work◦ Information gap activity, jigsaw task (20 minutes)◦ Picture no. 1-15 La rutina de Esteban◦ 15 Obligatory contexts, one for each picture◦ To produce third person singular form of present

tense verb◦ Participants received a set of numbered pictures

that represent Esteban’s routine, with each dyad member received half the pictures.

◦ Set facing each other in two desks fitted together with 12-inch screen

◦ The collaborative work was tape-recorded, transcribe and coded by the first author and an additional rater

Stimulated recall session◦ Introspective method.

◦ Learner’s comments were tape-recorded and transcribed.

◦ Comments on: How they accurately perceive their peer’s feedback

in response to their non-target like productions. Social structure of the classroom

Target structure◦ Spanish third-person singular form of present

tense indicative verbs.◦ Uses for actions, states, processes and events◦ Involves irregular, stem-changing and reflexive

verbs-challenging for English speakers.

Pre-, Post- and Delayed Posttests◦ Semi-spontaneous◦ 15 pictures-15 verbs using the target structure◦ 3 different versions of each of the 15 obligatory

context◦ Random selection for pre-, post- and delayed

posttest.

Data Analysis Procedures◦ Interactional discourse while doing the pair work

was transcribe and coded for errors in the target form.

◦ Also coded for type of corrective feedback. Explicit correction Recasts Negotiation

Research question 1◦ 3 pairs◦ Did show evidence, to varying degrees of

interpersonal conflict and negative attributions of one another.

Research question 2◦ Provided feedback coupled with overt negative

attributions or was immediately followed by interpersonal conflict does interfere with acquisition of recast item.

RESULT

Bell (1984) attention learners paid to speech form would be influence by the their social relationship with their interlocutors.

Findings of this research support this.

The current study also discover thatL2 leaner’s ability to perceive implicit negative feedback provided seem to be affected by expectations they had based on their social relationships with those same peers.

DISCUSSION

L2 learners need to understand feedback as it was intended. (“accurate perception”).

Each of the recasts in this study did provide useful linguistic information.

Recasts can deliver dual message-linguistic and social.

If learners accurately perceive negative personal attitudes at the social level, their ability to accurately perceive at the linguistic level may diminish.

Limited no. of participants.

Examine small area of language structure.

LIMITATION

Social dynamics in the L2 classroom affects learner’s ability to perceive accurately linguistic information provided in recasts in conversational interactions with their NNS peers.

Inability to identify resulted in their failure to acquire of these recast forms.

Teachers and SLA researchers should not generalized the impact of L2 acquisition in a pair work.

CONCLUSION