1) The study examined how social dynamics between learners affected their ability to perceive corrective feedback in the form of recasts. 2) The researchers found that in pairs where there was interpersonal conflict or negative interactions, learners were less able to accurately perceive and acquire the language forms provided in recasts. 3) Social relationships influence learners' attention to language forms and ability to understand feedback as intended. Negative social perceptions can diminish accurate perception of recasts at the linguistic level.

1. By:
Frank A Morris
Elaine E. Tarone

2.  Long and Robinson (1995)-acquisition of L2
benefits most when L2 learners focus not on
the linguistic form or communicative
meaning alone but on BOTH.
 The situation will occur in a variety of
classroom activities, including when the
learner’s conversational partner provide
either implicit or explicit corrective feedback.

3.  Recast
◦ A listener CORRECT reformulation
◦ is one form of corrective feedback,
◦ Example: Yesterday, Ahmad go to the supermarket.
◦ Yesterday, Ahmad went to the
supermarket.
◦ It has no explicit indication of an error.
◦ Ambiguous
◦ The interlocutor's supplying recast does not
guarantee a learner’s attentional shift to form-
depends on the learner.

4.  Long and Robinson (1998) call for studies in
SLA that explore the causal relationship
between Focus on Form (FonF), noticing and
learning.
 Crucial factor: Noticing or learner awareness
of the feedback.
 Learner needs:
◦ to notice and accurately identify corrective feedback
received.
◦ to be able to compare form produced to the form
provided in the recasts. (“cognitive comparison”)
(Doughty & Williams, 1998)

5.  How to determine whether noticing has
occurred?
 Long & Robinson (1998) suggest debriefing
questionnaires.
 Stimulated recall interviews (Macay, Gass, &
McDonough ,2000)
 Both are limited as they depend on the
learner’s ability to reconstruct thought
processes after they have occurred.

6.  If learning process is implicit, therefore this
kind of measure is mismatched with regard to
the process as it intended to measure.
 Swain & Lapkin (1998) suggest that the tools
used with an analysis of the language-related
episodes occurring naturally in the interaction
and assumed the researcher to pinpoint
moments of attention to form concurrently.

7.  How to identify the effectiveness of recasts?
◦ Need to establish whether learning has resulted
from the feedback.
◦ Uptake (learner’s repetition of the recast) is not an
evidence of learning. (Lyster & Ranta, 1997)
◦ Mackay & Philip (1998); Morris (2002a) Learning
may take place without uptake.
◦ Suggested instrument to be used: longer term
measurement of learner’s acquisition of items on
which they have received corrective feedback, post-
test and delayed post-test. (Long & Robinson,
1998, p.40)

8.  To understand how a person notice recast we
need to understand these factors:
 The speech style a speaker uses. Labov
(1970)
 Speech style:
◦ Attention to language form
◦ Attention to meaning
 Important cognitive mechanism that
influences learner’s variable attempts to be
accurate when using L2.

9.  Bell (1984) Attention is not solely cognitive. It
is a construct that bridges the cognitive and
the social.
 What causes attention to shift?
◦ Speaker’s responsiveness to the social relationships
among speakers.
◦ Social context influences L2 leaner’s ability to
perceive accurately the corrective feedback
provided.

10.  How do these different contexts affect
learner’s ability to accurately perceive
recasts?
◦ Nicholas et al. (2001) Classroom contexts make it
hard to identify recasts clearly as focused on form
as opposed to content.
◦ If classroom is focused on language form, learners
seem better to identify recasts as corrective
feedback better.
◦ In general, more information on the contextual
factors that need to be identify to facilitate the
effectiveness of recasts.

11.  It appears that in some of the factors there
exist social relationships between students.
 2 major social groupings emerged.
◦ One with extensive usage of L2 in and outside class
◦ One used L2 strictly for academic purposes
 These groups reluctant to work in pairs, if so
the proficient one will exert power and
ignored their partner’s contributions in
problem solving interactions.

12.  1. Does interpersonal conflict and negative
social interaction take place in pair work in
the class?
 2. Do these negative social dynamics interfere
with the L2 of pair work participants?

13.  Classroom context
◦ Data came from larger study (Morris, 2002a),
accelerated beginning Spanish foreign language
course at a large Midwestern university.
◦ Meeting 3 days per week, with 50 minutes
interaction each meeting.

14.  Participants
◦ 10 particiapnts.
◦ Survey given to gather personal information.
 Data Collection Procedures
◦ 6th class period
 Pretest
 Form pairs
 Posttest
◦ 13th class period
 Delayed posttest
◦ A week after
 Stimulated recall session

15.  Tasks for pair work
◦ Information gap activity, jigsaw task (20 minutes)
◦ Picture no. 1-15 La rutina de Esteban
◦ 15 Obligatory contexts, one for each picture
◦ To produce third person singular form of present
tense verb
◦ Participants received a set of numbered pictures
that represent Esteban’s routine, with each dyad
member received half the pictures.
◦ Set facing each other in two desks fitted together
with 12-inch screen
◦ The collaborative work was tape-recorded,
transcribe and coded by the first author and an
additional rater

16.  Stimulated recall session
◦ Introspective method.
◦ Learner’s comments were tape-recorded and
transcribed.
◦ Comments on:
 How they accurately perceive their peer’s feedback in
response to their non-target like productions.
 Social structure of the classroom

17.  Target structure
◦ Spanish third-person singular form of present tense
indicative verbs.
◦ Uses for actions, states, processes and events
◦ Involves irregular, stem-changing and reflexive
verbs-challenging for English speakers.

18.  Pre-, Post- and Delayed Posttests
◦ Semi-spontaneous
◦ 15 pictures-15 verbs using the target structure
◦ 3 different versions of each of the 15 obligatory
context
◦ Random selection for pre-, post- and delayed
posttest.

19.  Data Analysis Procedures
◦ Interactional discourse while doing the pair work
was transcribe and coded for errors in the target
form.
◦ Also coded for type of corrective feedback.
 Explicit correction
 Recasts
 Negotiation

20.  Research question 1
◦ 3 pairs
◦ Did show evidence, to varying degrees of
interpersonal conflict and negative attributions of
one another.
 Research question 2
◦ Provided feedback coupled with overt negative
attributions or was immediately followed by
interpersonal conflict does interfere with acquisition
of recast item.

21.  Bell (1984) attention learners paid to speech
form would be influence by the their social
relationship with their interlocutors.
 Findings of this research support this.
 The current study also discover thatL2
leaner’s ability to perceive implicit negative
feedback provided seem to be affected by
expectations they had based on their social
relationships with those same peers.

22.  L2 learners need to understand feedback as it
was intended. (“accurate perception”).
 Each of the recasts in this study did provide
useful linguistic information.
 Recasts can deliver dual message-linguistic
and social.
 If learners accurately perceive negative
personal attitudes at the social level, their
ability to accurately perceive at the linguistic
level may diminish.

23.  Limited no. of participants.
 Examine small area of language structure.

24.  Social dynamics in the L2 classroom affects
learner’s ability to perceive accurately
linguistic information provided in recasts in
conversational interactions with their NNS
peers.
 Inability to identify resulted in their failure to
acquire of these recast forms.
 Teachers and SLA researchers should not
generalized the impact of L2 acquisition in a
pair work.