RECASTS AND SECOND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: Beyond Negative Evidence

Abstract

Recasts have figured prominently in recent SLA research, with studiesdocumenting significant advantages for learners exposed to thistype of negative feedback. Although some researchers have suggestedthat such findings imply a beneficial role for negative evidence(i.e., information regarding the impossibility of certain utterancesin thelanguage being learned), the source of these benefits has not beenexplored directly, as multiple variables are conflated in recasts.Specifically,recasts not only offer implicit negative evidence, but theyalso provide positive evidence. Moreover, recasts are believed tomake this positive evidence especially salient. In the present study,74 learners of L2 Spanish engaged in communicative interaction withthe researcher in one of the following conditions: (a) recasts (i.e.,negative evidence and enhanced salience of positive evidence), (b)negative evidence, (c) enhanced salience of positive evidence, and(d) unenhanced positive evidence (control). Only the recast and enhanced-salience groups performed significantly better than the controlgroup on posttreatment measures, which suggests that the utilityof recasts is derived at least in part from enhanced salience of positiveevidence and that the implicit negative evidence they seem toprovide may not be a crucial factor.