The literature is supportive of recasts, but recast effectiveness varies with the language area and learner knowledge, focus, and aptitudes¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 2 studies · 1 quant-synthesis r?, 1 review r2 · q2–q3 · i2 medium · n=15 studies (N=827); recasts n=7 studies, k=13
Currency · newest study 2010 · 1 of 2 entries checked against their sources (automated) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The corrective-feedback literature is overall supportive of recasts because they provide positive evidence when the learner is maximally receptive, yet recast effectiveness varies by language area and learner variables. → Robert DeKeyser 2010 q3 i2 Across 15 classroom quasi-experimental studies, recasts had a significant medium effect against control groups (d = 0.53), but prompts (d = 0.83) and explicit correction (d = 0.84) had larger ones, and prompts were significantly more effective than recasts in within-group contrasts. → Lyster & Saito 2010

Evidence¶

Robert DeKeyser 2010¶

Robert DeKeyser. (2010). Practice for Second Language Learning: Don't Throw out the Baby with the Bathwater. International Journal of English Studies, 10(1). https://www.um.es/ijes

q2 · i? · review · r2

Narrative review of corrective-feedback research, citing multiple studies and meta-analyses (e.g. Li 2010; Lyster & Saito 2010; Russell & Spada 2006). The review reports recasts are supported overall but their "effectiveness of recasts varies" with language part and learner characteristics.

"Overall, the literature is supportive of recasts, because they provide positive evidence at a time when the learner is maximally receptive to them (Long, 2009; Pica, 2009). The effectiveness of recasts varies, however, depending on the part of language th at is at issue, and the previous knowledge, willingness to focus on form, and aptitudes of the students"

Lyster & Saito 2010¶

Lyster, R., & Saito, K. (2010). Oral feedback in classroom SLA: A meta-analysis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 32(2), 265–302. doi:10.1017/S0272263109990520

q3 · meta-analysis of classroom quasi-experimental studies · i2 · medium effect, d=0.53 for recasts (between-group) · n=15 studies (N=827); recasts n=7 studies, k=13 · quant-synthesis · r?

Meta-analysis restricted to 15 classroom-based quasi-experimental studies of oral corrective feedback in teacher–student interaction (N = 827). In between-group contrasts recasts had a medium effect of 0.53 (7 studies, k = 13, CI ± 0.21), against 0.83 for prompts and 0.84 for explicit correction; in within-group contrasts recasts had 0.70 against 1.14 for prompts, and prompts proved significantly more effective than recasts there. So recasts are supported in classrooms, but they had the smallest between-group effect of the three feedback types. The authors note that the standard deviations and confidence intervals of all three types are widely ranged, and they attribute Mackey and Goo's (2007) much larger recast effect to that synthesis including laboratory studies. Full text read.

"the results support medium effects of 0.53 for recasts ( n = 7, k = 13, CI = ± 0.21, SD = 0.39), large effects of 0.83 for prompts"

Discussion¶

Lyster and Saito (2010), a meta-analysis of 15 classroom studies, supports recasts as effective (d = 0.53 against controls) but qualifies "supportive of recasts": prompts had larger effects, significantly so in within-group contrasts, so in classrooms the case for recasts is that they work, not that they are the best choice. The claim's point that effectiveness varies by learner is borne out for age, though for corrective feedback as a whole rather than recasts alone: younger learners benefited more than older ones.

Learner Variables¶

• General Cognitive Ability — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it
• Long-Term Memory — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it
• Oral Language — moderator: an instructional effect differs with it

Related Claims¶

• Corrective feedback on second-language errors has a significant effect on L2 development that is maintained on delayed tests — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
• No research yet addresses the three-way interaction of learner aptitudes, characteristics of the target forms, and practice modalities — related
• College EFL instructors in a Mexican case study showed more positive attitudes towards implicit oral corrective feedback strategies (recast, body language) than explicit ones — related
• EFL instructors were unaware of most OCF strategy types and did not consider students' cognition when deciding on corrective feedback — related
• Explicit teaching is more effective for EFL copular be learning but its effect is not durable — related
• Metalinguistic feedback's gains on wh-question performance decline over a ten-day delay while recast gains hold, leaving the two no different — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Metalinguistic feedback and recasts, but not clarification requests, significantly improve Iranian EFL learners' wh-question performance on an immediate post-test — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• 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
• Declarative memory predicts immediate UGJT posttest gains for irregular past tense only under recasts — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Child EFL learners receiving recasts in task-based lessons improve their production of third person singular -s from pretest to posttest, in a study with no no-recast comparison group — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Corrective feedback facilitates L2 grammatical development, with explicit feedback stronger immediately and implicit feedback better maintained over time — related
• Pragmatic recasts improved learners' request performance in one study but showed no significant effects in another, leaving recast effectiveness mixed — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Laboratory and classroom studies assess the effects of recasts and different CF types differentially — related
• All three groups benefited from the instructional intervention, with both experimental groups benefiting the most — related
• Prompts were overall more effective than recasts as corrective feedback for L2 grammar learning — related
• Recasts were provided more predominantly than prompts and explicit correction in both French immersion and Japanese immersion elementary classrooms — related
• Effectiveness of pedagogical tools depends on learners' initial grasp of the object of learning (aptitude–treatment interaction) — related
• The study compared feedback-uptake relationships across two immersion settings totaling 18.3 hr of French and 14.8 hr of Japanese classroom interaction — related
• CF effectiveness is mediated by multiple variables, including linguistic targets and learners' age — related
• Age did not significantly predict language learning aptitude in this adult sample — related