The Effects of L2 Learner‘s
Developmental Readiness and Field
Independence on the Efficacy of
Recast for Morphosyntax
Acquisition
Mohammad Javad Ahmadian
M.A. STUDENT
University of Isfahan
TEFL Conference University of Isfahan, January 2009©

 L: Jack die yesterday.
 T: Jack died yesterday?
 L: Yes, he died yesterday.
“…a reformulation of all or part of a learner’s
immediately preceding utterance in which one
or more non-target-like […] items are replaced
by the corresponding target language form(s),
and where, throughout the exchange, the focus
of the interlocutors is on meaning, not
language as object.”(Long, 2007, p.67)

 Why recast?
Prior
Joint
Feedback comprehension
attentional
in context focus
Form-function Noticing
mapping Contingency
Cognitive Focus on
window meaning

Erroneous
Recast
form
Psychological
factors
Cognitive
comparison
LEARNIN
Noticing the G
GAP

 One of the unresolved issues: (Long, 2007;
Leeman, 2002; Ortega & Long, 1997; Goldschneider & Dekeyser, 2001)
PERCEPTUAL SALIENCE
 Acoustic salience
 Semantic salience
 Communicative salience
 Frequency-driven salience
THUS, RECAST IS NOT EFFECTIVE FOR ALL STRUCTURES!!
BUT, THAT’S NOT THE END OF THE STORY…

 Statement of the problem:
MORPHOSYNTAX
 Acoustic salience
 Semantic salience
 Communicative salience

 Statement of the problem
Developmental Field
readiness independence
EFFICACY OF RECAST

 Research questions:
1- Whether learners’ developmental readiness to learn
English morphosyntactic features affects the extent to
which they can incorporate the features, addressed in the
recast, into their interlanguages or not?
2- Whether or not L2 learners’ field independence impacts
the extent to which they can incorporate the features,
addressed in the recast, into their interlanguages?

 Participants:
40 EFL learners after being pretested in terms of a) level of
proficiency; b) ability in oral production of morphosyntax;
c) field (in)dependence, were assigned to four groups:

 Pretest materials:
1- Oxford placement test.
2- A test developed by the researcher to pretest intermediate
and beginner-level learners’ ability in oral production of
morphosyntax. Learners were coded for correct/incorrect
use of morphosyntax.
3- GEF test; to distinguish field independent form field
dependent learners.

 Target forms:
The target forms chosen to be addressed in the focused
recasts were plural –s, past –ed, and progressive –ing.
The rationale behind choosing these forms…
 Focused Recast was used

 The tasks:
In this study three picture-description tasks were
used. Each picture had the potential to provide at
least 5 obligatory contexts for one of the
target forms.
The formula for obligatory occasion analysis: (Ellis & Barkhuizen, 2005; Pica,
1994)

 Data analysis procedure and results:
The scores obtained form transcribing the audio-recorded
descriptions were submitted to two-way ANOVA.
Results revealed that field independence and developmental
readiness significantly affected the utility of recasts (p < .05).
The interaction effect of the field independence and developmental
readiness was not statistically significant, hence the possibility to
make stronger claims based on the results.

Thank you …
Ahmadian.edu@gmail.com