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Investigating the characteristics of effective recasts in the ESL classroom

Investigating the characteristics of effective recasts in the ESL classroom. Shawn Loewen & Jenefer Philp TBLT Conference. Recasts. Target-like reformulations following a learner’s non-TL utterance.

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Investigating the characteristics of effective recasts in the ESL classroom

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  1. Investigating the characteristics of effective recasts in the ESL classroom Shawn Loewen & Jenefer Philp TBLT Conference

  2. Recasts • Target-like reformulations following a learner’s non-TL utterance. • Maintains the central meaning, while changing elements of the form (lexical, morphological, syntactic, phonological components). (Long, 1996)

  3. Example of Recast S: when I was soldier I used to wear the balaclava T: and why did you wear it S for protection from the cold or for another reason S: just wind uh protection to wind and cold T: protection from S: uh from wind and cold T: right, okay not for a disguise

  4. Potential benefits of recasts • Provide implicit negative feedback • Juxtapose the learner’s incorrect utterance with the target-like version • Contingent on the learner’s production • Incidental

  5. Potential limitations of recasts • Ambiguous • Learners are not pushed in their output • Differentially beneficial depending on form • Other forms of feedback may be more beneficial

  6. Research rationale • Studies of recasts have not always worked from the same definition. • Characteristics of recasts may vary, and these variations may influence their effectiveness.

  7. Research Questions • What are the characteristics of recasts in young adult ESL classes? • Are particular characteristics of recasts associated with successful uptake/accurate test scores?

  8. Participants • Private language school in Auckland, New Zealand • 12 Teachers • Native speakers of English • 8 male, 4 female • 118 Students • Intermediate English proficiency • Primarily from Korea, China and Japan

  9. Procedure • 17 hours of audio-recorded classroom observations • FFEs and Recasts identified and coded • Individualised tests designed and administered (Immediate and Delayed)

  10. Characteristics of recasts • FFEs with recasts were coded for the following features:

  11. Linguistic Focus • Lexical • Morphological/Syntactic • Phonological • Combination

  12. Prosodic emphasis • Stressed or Unstressed H: some people have racism T: some people ARE racist H: are racist

  13. Intonation • Declarative or Interrogative S: somebody steal my paper (.) stolen T: someone stole your paper?

  14. Length of Recast • More or less than 5 morphemes S: my brain will s- I seem will seem to be explode T: my my brain seems to be exploding

  15. Segmentation Segmented or Whole S: why he why should he release? T: be released

  16. Number of Changes • 1 Change or 2+ Changes S: damag-ed (.) wall damag-ed T: the hotel wall was damaged

  17. Number of Feedback Moves • 1 or 2+ S: the title of the story is girl had blood in her scalp T: blood? S: bloot T: bullet bullet= S:=bullet bullet in her scalp

  18. Successful Uptake Students incorporate the linguistic form into their own production S: maybe everyday have a lot of people die by the cigarette T: die from cigarettes S: die from cigarettes, so maybe …

  19. Testing Procedure Students were tested orally on the linguistic forms targeted in FFEs in which students themselves were involved.

  20. TEST: Correction Example The following sentences are incorrect or inappropriate. Please listen and tell me how you could make the sentences better. 1. I used to wear the balaclava for protection to wind and cold.

  21. Test: Pronunciation • Learners were asked to first read aloud a sentence containing the targeted word/phrase and then to read aloud the target word/phrase in isolation.

  22. Test Scores • Responses to test items were scored as correct or incorrect according to the response provided in the recast/FFE

  23. Results • 465 FFEs • 228 Recasts

  24. Linguistic Focus

  25. Length of Recast

  26. Prosodic Emphasis

  27. Segmentation

  28. Number of Changes

  29. Number of Feedback Moves

  30. Intonation

  31. Predictors of Successful uptake

  32. Predictors of Successful Uptake • Stressed recasts • Declarative recasts • Recast with only one change • FFEs with more than one feedback move

  33. Predictors of Accurate Test Scores

  34. Predictors of Accurate Test Scores • Interrogative Recasts • Recasts with fewer than 5 morphemes • Recasts with only one change

  35. Summary • Recasts in these classes were generally short, stressed, segmented, declarative with only one change. • The same characteristics did not predict both successful uptake and correct test scores.

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