Evaluation of McDonough & Mackey (2006) by Sorin

McDonough, K. & Mackey, A. (2006). Responses to recasts: repetitions, primed production, and linguistic development. Language Learning, 56, 693-720.

This study examined one of the most oft-mentioned issues of recasts, whether recasts facilitate L2 development, by investigating the relationships among recasts, different responses to recasts, and L2 development. The researchers distinguished simple repetitions of a recast from primed production and compared their effects on the development of English question. Primed production was defined as a learner’s new utterance using the syntactic structure provided in the recast either immediately or a few turns later (in this paper, within six turns). In a pre- and posttest design, 58 Thai EFL university students performed a series of communicative tasks with NS interlocutors (during three treatment sessions) and completed four tests (one pretest and three posttests) over a 9-week period. L2 development was operationalized in this study as the production of higher level questions on all three posttests according to Pienemann’s developmental sequence. The results indicated that recasts and primed production were predictive of ESL question development whereas mere repetition of recasts was not significantly correlated with ESL question development.

I found this article worth reading since it was among the few studies investigating the relationships among recasts, responses, and L2 development, and showed relatively long-term effects (9-week period) of recasts. It also provided evidence that merely repeating recasts was not necessarily associated with development, and it was more beneficial to produce the form in one’s own way. The findings that learners without immediate responses to recasts were able to successfully formulate advanced questions later on supported delayed effects of recasts on L2 development, thus indicating that the absence of learner responses to recasts, which was often criticized, does not necessarily limit the effectiveness of recasts. Another interesting result of the study was that most of the learners in the control group, which did not receive any feedback, did not produce primed production involving advanced-level questions, even though their NS interlocutor’s use of the targeted form created opportunities for it, which requires further investigation.

This study would be useful to those who are interested in the effectiveness of recasts including its impact on language development, long-term (and/or delayed) effects of recasts, different types of responses to recasts, and their effects on L2 acquisition. The brief summaries of previous studies, addressing various issues regarding the effectiveness of recasts, would be helpful resources for those conducing research on these issues. Thus, I would like to recommend this article to be included in the reading packet.