A Small-scale Study On The Effectiveness Of Recast In Chinese EFL Settings

In the last 30 years, the communicative approach has developed into the major trend in foreign language learning and teaching. Despite all kinds of version or practical deed, the principle of focusing on meaning and communication has become widely accepted by researchers and teachers. With the advent and advancement of the concept "focus on form", "interlanguage" and Interaction hypothesis, the effect and contribution of corrective strategies of the teachers have been of great interest to language researchers.Recast, as one type of corrective feedback, is an implicit reformulation of all or part of students'expression (Lyster,1998a). It comprises a large percentage of teachers'corrective feedback for its non-intrusion into meaning-focused interaction.There has been much research about recast at home and abroad, although the results of the research have been ambiguous. There are few empirical studies about effectiveness of recast in China, and most of the studies so far are descriptive studies.Furthermore, we find another inconsistency in the measuring of the effectiveness of recasts. The most frequently used method is uptake, i.e. the learner's immediate response to the corrective feedback. However, the validity and reliability of uptake have been questioned by researchers. There are also other methods to measure the effectiveness of recast, such as the tailor-made tests, uptake charts, and etc., each of which has their own advantages and disadvantages.This thesis has taken a small-scale study among two high school students and two adults in an American-investigated company. The data collection process lasted for one and a half month. Through the experiment, each student was asked to do two types of activities (jigsaw and spotting-the-differences) for six times, and recast was used as the only way to correct the students'errors. The interactional activities have been recorded and transcribed.The questions that this thesis tries to answer are:1. Do the learners make fewer errors through the use of recast as the corrective feedback for their errors in interactive activities?2. Are there any differences in the acquisition of the target linguistic features between the different language learners?3. What are the possible reasons for these differences? Do they imply any linguistic or pedagogic meanings?On the basis of data analysis, the major findings are presented as follows:Recast is effective on several conditions.1. The proficiency level of the learners, their age and motivation will affect the effectiveness of recast.2. Noticing is a necessary condition for the effective functioning of recasts. Uptake, asking for clarification of new information, self-correction are all indicators of learners' awareness of the gap between the initial production and the target form.3. The intensity of instruction is also an important factor; for in such a case, the frequency and saliency of the target form are enhanced, which have been regarded as two important factors for the acquisition of new linguistic form (e.g. Doughty&Varela, 1998; Oliver,1995).Based on these findings, this thesis explores some pedagogical implications for language teachers:To achieve the effective outcome of recasts, the teacher need have students get some basic knowledge of the target linguistic form. As teachers, they should also take into consideration of the learning level, the age, and the motivation of the students, which may all be the possible factors affecting the effectiveness of recasts.Furthermore, teachers should take into consideration the ambiguity of recasts. Thus, in such a case, the additional cue to recasts or the other type of corrective feedback may be more facilitative for the learners to acquire the new linguistic form and should be taken into consideration by the language teachers. Besides, when setback appears in study, the teachers should be patient and instruct persistently. In such a case, the recast may function well.