RECASTS AND SECOND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: Beyond Negative Evidence
Abstract
Recasts have figured prominently in recent SLA research, with studies documenting significant advantages for learners exposed to this type of negative feedback. Although some researchers have suggested that such findings imply a beneficial role for negative evidence (i.e., information regarding the impossibility of certain utterances in the language being learned), the source of these benefits has not been explored directly, as multiple variables are conflated in recasts. Specifically, recasts not only offer implicit negative evidence, but they also provide positive evidence. Moreover, recasts are believed to make this positive evidence especially salient. In the present study, 74 learners of L2 Spanish engaged in communicative interaction with the researcher in one of the following conditions: (a) recasts (i.e., negative evidence and enhanced salience of positive evidence), (b) negative evidence, (c) enhanced salience of positive evidence, and (d) unenhanced positive evidence (control). Only the recast and enhanced-salience groups performed significantly better than the control group on posttreatment measures, which suggests that the utility of recasts is derived at least in part from enhanced salience of positive evidence and that the implicit negative evidence they seem to provide may not be a crucial factor.
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Research has indicated that the positive evidence provided by recasts can also be important.
“however, research has indicated that the positive evidence provided by recasts can also be important (Leeman 2003).”
From Interaction and instructed second language acquisition (2018) · cites this paper as Leeman 2003
Cites
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Lyster, R., & Ranta, L. (1997) · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · doi:10.1017/s0272263197001034 · Cited by 2,259 · cited 2× · see citing works
“For example, in their analyses of learner response to negative feedback in L2 classrooms, Lyster and Ranta found that the most common feedback type, recasts, rarely resulted in uptake, or learner acknowledgment of correction (Lyster, 1998; Lyster & Ranta, 1997).”
BackgroundLong, M. (1991) · Studies in Bilingualism · doi:10.1075/sibil.2.07lon · Cited by 1,775 · cited 3× · see citing works
“Other factors that are closely tied to salience are frequency, grammatical complexity, semantic complexity, and communicative value (Bardovi-Harlig, 1987; Brown; Gass, 1980; Goldschneider & DeKeyser, 2001; Harley, 1993, 1998; Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991; VanPatten, 1989, 1996).”
BackgroundINPUT, INTERACTION, AND SECOND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: An Empirical Study of Question Formation in ESL
Mackey, A. (1999) · Studies in Second Language Acquisition · doi:10.1017/s0272263199004027 · Cited by 772 · see citing works
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Li, S. (2010) · Language Learning · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00561.x · Cited by 941 · see citing works
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Rassaei, E. (2019) · System · doi:10.1016/j.system.2019.03.004 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
- Authors
- Leeman, J.
- Affiliations
- George Mason University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Leeman, Jennifer
- ORCID
- Leeman, Jennifer
- Venue
- Studies in Second Language Acquisition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2003-01-16
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 37-63
- ISSN
- 0272-2631 (ISSN-L)
- 1470-1545
- OpenAlex
- W2146862358
- Cited by
- 406
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 39 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 23 · 2013: 27 · 2012: 27
- FWCI
- 128.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Studies in Second Language Acquisition (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Second Language Acquisition and Learning
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Linguistics and Language Analysis
- Keywords
- recasts, second language acquisition, negative evidence, positive evidence, corrective feedback, L2 Spanish
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