Impact of classroom dynamics on the effectiveness of recasts in second language acquisition

Abstract

Interpersonal conflict arose in the interactions of three dyads of learners engaged in collaborative work in a foreign language classroom. Results show that although learners corrected each other's errors using recasts, in several cases the learners continued to produce the erroneous form in posttests. Stimulated recall revealed that negative feelings about their conversation partners seemed to have caused some learners to interpret recasts not as helpful corrective feedback, but as criticism and even mockery. The social dynamics of the language classroom may in some cases dramatically alter the way the cognitive processes of attention, or noticing, are deployed in cooperative learning activities in which feedback occurs, and this in turn appears to affect acquisition.