Learner-learner interaction in the Spanish foreign language classroom: The effects of recasts and negotiation on L2 development

The purpose of the present study was to examine whether adult beginning foreign language learners of Spanish working in pairs provided implicit negative feedback (INF) in response to their peers' non target-like utterances, and whether INF led to the development of the forms that were corrected. Ten adult beginning foreign language learners of Spanish who were enrolled in the same Spanish 1022 class at the University of Minnesota participated in the study. During regular class time learners completed a pretest and immediately after were placed in dyads and asked to work on the same jigsaw task. Immediately following the jigsaw task, learners completed a posttest, and a week later completed a delayed posttest. The collaborative work of all dyads was tape recorded, and later transcribed and coded for errors in the 3rd person singular of present tense verbs, types of negative feedback provided in response to these errors (explicit/recasts/negotiation), and learners' reactions to feedback. Stimulated recall, a technique that allows learners to listen to recordings of their interactions and introspect about their thoughts at the time they received the feedback, was used to examine whether learners noticed INF.; Findings indicated that students provided other students with implicit negative feedback but not explicit negative feedback. Errors were more likely to be followed by recasts than by negotiation. Learners did not produce repairs immediately after receiving INF, but some learners noticed INF. Negotiations were perceived accurately, but recasts were sometimes mistaken as mockery or repetition. Pre, post and delayed posttest comparisons revealed that learners sometimes developed the forms that were corrected. Noticing INF seems to have played a role in development; when feedback was perceived accurately, development took place, but when it was not perceived accurately, development did not occur. The study concludes with suggestions for future research and pedagogical implications.