The study investigated the effects of recasts and prompts on learning language forms that arose incidentally in dyadic interaction, focusing on the degree of explicitness of each type of feedback and learner proficiency levels. The data were collected from 64 beginning and upper-intermediate English learners of Korean. Thirty-one beginning learners were randomly assigned to a feedback group and to a control group, and thirtythree upper-intermediate learners were also assigned to a feedback group and to a control group. Each learner was paired with an English speaker and worked on a picture-sequencing task. The learners in the feedback groups received recasts or prompts on their erroneous utterances while the learners in the control groups did not. The effects of feedback were measured by pre-interaction picture descriptions and immediate and delayed post-interaction correction tasks. The study found that both recasts and prompts had some effects on learning the targeted forms, and more explicit forms of each feedback resulted in a higher rate of correction. The beginning learners took more advantages of recasts relative to the upper-intermediate learners, and explicit prompts worked better for the upper-intermediate learners. The effects of prompts sustained longer than recasts in both levels.

This study investigated whether recasts provided during communicative interaction may improve Korean EFL learners’ accuracy with regard to regular and irregular English past tense forms, and whether individual differences in working memory capacity may intervene in the effects of recasts. To this end, forty-two Korean university students were placed into either the recast or the control group, and took the pretest and two types of working memory tests: phonological short-term and verbal. The learners participated in one-on-one conversational interactions with the researcher in three two-way communicative tasks one at a time on a weekly basis. Only the treatment group received explicit recasts on their past tense errors while the control group received no feedback of any kind. Finally, they took the posttest and completed the exit questionnaire. Results showed that recasts were beneficial for raising the learners’ accuracy level of English past tense forms, both regular and irregular, though the effects were much larger for the irregular forms. The improvements were not significantly correlated with neither of the working memory measures. Explicit and intensive recasting alone was sufficient in improving EFL learners’ English past tense accuracy in this one-on-one communicative interaction setting.

This present study concerned whether prompts and recasts that occur during interaction could play a role in L2 development. Adopting an untimed grammatical judgment test and an elicited oral imitation test to measure explicit and implicit knowledge, this study examined the relative effects of prompts and recasts on L2 development of past tense forms. The participants were pre-intermediate learners enrolled in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes at a university in Korea. The learners were assigned to two prompt groups, a recast group, and a control group. The analysis of the untimed grammaticality judgment test revealed that the participants promoted their explicit knowledge of the past tense forms of regular and irregular verbs when prompts were provided. The analysis also showed that the learners who received recasts improved their test scores but only in irregular past tense forms. No significant group difference was found among the treatment groups and the control group in the results of the elicited oral imitation test used to measure implicit knowledge of the target forms. These results indicated that prompts were beneficial for short-term L2 grammatical learning of EFL learners of pre-intermediate level. The implications and limitations are discussed in terms of the role of prompts in driving L2 development.

Recasts have been at the center of much di scussion in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) and a great deal of research has explored the effects of recasts on second language (L2) learning. However, there are st ill many issues and questions left to be answered. As a means of responding to these needs, the current study investigated the effectiveness of recasts in the accuracy development of child EFL learners in their use of past verb forms in English. The effectiveness of recasts was examined in relation to the type of past verbs (i.e., regular vs. irregular verbs) and the degree of exp licitness of recasts (i .e., implicit recasts vs. explicit recasts). Six elementary school students participated in the study and data were collected through a time-series design for 6 weeks. The analyses of the data showed that recasts were effective in enhancing the learners' accuracy in the use of both regular and irregular verbs. The learners benefited more from explicit recasts than implicit recasts in developing the accuracy of past verbs. However, improving the accuracy of regu lar verbs was more susceptible to explicit recasts than implicit recasts, while there was no significant difference in the gains of accuracy of irregular verbs in relation to the type of recasts.

Learner immediate response (i.e., uptake) to recasts has been discussed in a considerable amount of research in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Many different interpretations of learner uptake have been proposed. One of them defines uptake as an indication of learner noticing of recasts. However, only a limited amount of research has actually examined how learner uptake is associated with learner perception of recasts. The current study examined how learners actually respond to recasts provided in the classroom. In addition, it investigated whether or not learner uptake was related to learner perception of recasts and how the quality of learner uptake was associated with the depth of learner awareness. Nine intact English classrooms were observed and video-taped. Eighty-eight students participated in either oral or written stimulated recall sessions. They viewed the video clips of their own classes and recalled the moments when they received recasts. The analyses of classroom interaction and students’ comments indicated that they responded to recasts to a considerable extent when they had an opportunity for uptake. Learner uptake of recasts was found to be related to learner perception of recasts. It was also revealed that the students much more frequently perceived the gap when they showed successful uptake compared to the cases where they did not.