The Effects Of Different Testing Tasks And Working Memory On The Observed Effectiveness Of Recast In English Learning

Recast is an effective kind of corrective feedback used most frequently in second language class. The effectiveness of recast is influenced by various variables including testing tasks, individual differences, types of recast, language proficiency, development ability, learning background, target language, class activity, etc. Different testing tasks are critical external factors while working memory is of equal importance in terms of the learner’s internal factors. This study is based on corrective feedback theory and second language acquisition hypotheses including the noticing hypothesis, the comprehensible input hypothesis, the interaction hypothesis and the comprehensible output hypothesis. It is aimed to examine the effects of different testing tasks and working memory on the observed effectiveness of recast in English class.Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were employed in this paper and the target form of the study is the attributive clause. The participants were114English learners in senior middle school, who were assigned to a recast group and a control group. Firstly, the working memory span test and the grammatical pretest and the oral pretest of the attributive clause were carried out before the teaching treatment to the recast group. The teaching treatment lasted for4weeks and finally the grammatical immediate posttest and the oral immediate posttest of the attributive clause of both groups were carried out. The pretest-posttest design was employed to detect any improvement in the learners’ knowledge of the attributive clause. As for the qualitative approach, ten participants in recast group were randomly chosen and interviewed after the teaching treatment and the immediate posttests to study their reaction to recast and to consult their suggestion for corrective feedback in English class. The data collected was processed by means of descriptive analysis, independent sample T test, paired-samples T test and correlation analysis using SPSS19.0.There are two main findings:First of all, recast generates more gains on an oral test while less gains on a grammatical test. Secondly, significant positive correlation is found between the working memory reading span and grammatical production in recast group.It’s concluded that recast is an effective feedback in English class which benefits different testing tasks. Participants in recast group make greater improvement in an oral production which means recast is more suitable for an oral English teaching. Participants make improvement in a grammatical production in a less effective way which means recast can also be used in a grammatical teaching but it is less effective than an oral teaching. In addition, working memory reading capacity is related to the observed effectiveness of recast closely and positively in terms of grammatical tasks.Pedagogical implication based on two main findings is:Firstly, in grammar teaching the teacher should help the learner to notice the gap between interlanguage and the target form. It’s suggested that the teacher should employ recast in oral English teaching in order to guide the students to pay attention to and correct the error in oral English while the teacher should employ a mixture of different kinds of corrective feedback(for example, a mixture of recast feedback, meta-linguistic feedback and clarification request feedback) in grammatical teaching in order to supply the student with much more comprehensible, sufficient and absorbable grammatical information to promote the internalization of the grammatical knowledge. In addition, the teacher should make full use of corrective feedback and other teaching methods in order to enhance language teaching effectively. It’s advisable that the teacher should apply both mild negative feedback and positive feedback in class to motivate the student’s interest and potentiality. It’s better to encourage the student in English learning than to criticize him directly. Moreover, the consultation with the student on proper feedback used in class is needed in order to correct the student’s error effectively. Secondly, the teacher should guide the learner to treat errors properly. Various class activities may be explored to offer more chances for production and for correcting errors in order to facilitate language acquisition. Thirdly, from the cognitive perspective, language teaching should not be limited in language skills but focus on the learner’s learning capacity, creative thinking, etc. Individual difference is a key factor which accounts for different grading of the students in the same class. There is significant positive relation between working memory reading capacity and the observed effectiveness of recast in grammatical testing tasks when recast is used in English teaching. It’s suggested that the teacher should be trained to select relevant teaching material and design working memory activities in class to enlarge the learners’brain storage and accelerate the speed of information processing.