The Effects Of Recast And Explicit Correction On English Postalveolar Consonants Instruction

Based on the theory of phonological transfer,the noticing hypothesis and the output hypothesis,the current study explored the effects of recasts and explicit correction on the acquisition of/d3/t?/and/?].64 participants who were English majors from a university in Hunan province,were randomly divided into three groups,an explicit correction group(n=19),a recast group(n=22),and a control group(n=23).The study adopted a pretest,immediate post-test,and delayed post-test design.One-way ANOVA was used to investigate the overall effect of corrective feedback on the acquisition of/d3/,/t?/and/?/,and independent sample t-tests were performed to explore which kind of corrective feedback was more efficient for the acquisition of/d3/,/t?/and/?/.The results showed that(1)in general,corrective feedback had a positive effect on the acquisition of/d3/,/t?/and/?/;and(2)the explicit correction group outperformed the recasts group in the immediate posttest,but there was no significant difference between the two groups in the delayed posttest.This study puts forward some pedagogical suggestions for pronunciation instruction.First of all,it is necessary for instructors to explain the articulatory organs and pronunciation methods for learners,especially for sounds similar to their native language;secondly,when pronunciation errors occur,instructors should give learners immediate corrective feedback and clear signals so that learners can notice and repair their own errors;finally,instructors should provide learners with a large number of opportunities for language output.