A controlled experiment tested whether various types of negative feedback affect adult second-language learners' acquisition of abstract constraints on an overgeneralized rule (the English dative alternation).¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr?·q3
Currency · newest study 1993 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 1 of 1 entry) · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q3 i? The study empirically investigated whether negative feedback helps 100 adult Spanish-speaking ESL learners learn the appropriate abstract constraints on an overgeneral rule, using the English dative alternation. → Susanne Carroll and Merrill Swain 1993
Evidence¶
Susanne Carroll and Merrill Swain 1993¶
Susanne Carroll and Merrill Swain. (1993). Explicit and Implicit Negative Feedback: An Empirical Study of the Learning of Linguistic Generalizations. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Volume 15, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263100012158
q3 · i? · causal · r?
Peer-reviewed experimental study in Studies in Second Language Acquisition. The abstract states the study investigated "the relative effects of various types of negative feedback on the acquisition of the English dative alternation" with 100 adult Spanish-speaking learners of English as a second language. No outcome results are printed in the available text.
"The relative effects of various types of negative feedback on the acquisition of the English dative alternation by 100 adult Spanish-speaking learners of English as a second language were investigated."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- The study's objective was to determine empirically whether feedback can help learners learn abstract constraints on an overgeneral rule, not merely surface forms. — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
- Metalinguistic feedback outperforms recasts on the immediate post-test, but the two do not differ significantly on the delayed post-test — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Corrective feedback on second-language errors has a significant effect on L2 development that is maintained on delayed tests — a broader claim this one bears on
- Metalinguistic feedback's gains on wh-question performance decline over a ten-day delay while recast gains hold, leaving the two no different — related
- Successes of form-focused manipulation of input in adult L2 are illusory with respect to linguistic competence, affecting only performance — related
- Design studies indicated metalinguistic information about how English spelling and pronunciation work helped adult learners remember and apply what they learned — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
negative-feedback-types-dative-alternation-experiment |
title |
A controlled experiment tested whether various types of negative feedback affect adult second-language learners' acquisition of abstract constraints on an overgeneralized rule (the English dative alternation). |
description |
A controlled experiment tested whether various types of negative feedback affect adult second-language learners' acquisition of abstract constraints on an overgeneralized rule (the English dative alternation). |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
1993 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-15 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — susanne-carroll-and-merrill-swain-1993 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.