Evaluation of Loewen and Philip (2006) By Ping

Loewen, S., & Philip, J. (2006). Recasts in the adult L2 classroom: Characteristics, explicitness and effectiveness. Modern Language Journal, 90, 536-556.

This study examined the provision, the nature, and the effectiveness of recasts in 12 adult ESL classrooms. The findings indicated that recasts were widely used and were beneficial at least 50 % of the time. Although other forms of feedback had similar success rate measured by posttests, recasts differed in the connection between learner response and test performance. The study suggests that recasts vary widely in terms of stress, intonation, number of feedback moves, length of recasts, and degree of explicitness. These characteristics of recasts are likely to affect their effectiveness in classroom context. More specifically, it points out that stress, declarative intonation, and number of feedback moves can be associated with the effectiveness of recasts since these elemens increase the salience of recasts and therefore learners respond to them as explicit corrections. The study also suggests that other factors, such as degree of differences between the learner's utterance and the recast and the nature of discourse in which recasts are provided, should be taken into account.

I think this article brings up an important issue we talked about in previous session: the degree of explicitness of negative feedback. It investigates the differences within recasts and considers the impact of their characteristics on their effectiveness, instead of classifying them as one generic type of implicit negative feedback. Also, it highlights the importance to not only look at learners' immediate uptake, but also consider the overall interactional organization of the discourse. Using learners' immediate response to feedback might not be adequate to assess the effectiveness of recasts. For example, multiple feedback moves can contribute to further learner engagement and higher learner production, therefore serving as predictor of successful uptake.

If you are interested in variable elements of recasts and the complexities of their characteristics, this will be a good read. It has a comprehensive discussion on different perspectives regarding the benefits and limitations of recasts. I think it's a good introduction to those who are not familiar with recast studies. Even though I got confused with its coding categories, overall, I will recommend it to be added to the 750 reading packet.