To Recast, or to Prompt: That Is the Question

To Recast, or to Prompt: That Is the Question

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether recast or prompt as two important corrective feedback (CF) could have different effects on learning grammatical rules of Iranian EFL learners. To fulfill the purpose, the researcher, first, administered an OPT on 67 pre-TOEFL learners, aging between 15 and 18, to select her subjects for the study. 48 of participants who scored between -1 and +1 SD of the mean were selected and assigned to three groups of control, recast and prompt. Each group had 16 participants. A forty-item multiple choice test was administered to the three groups as a pretest examining the participants’ knowledge of simple past tense, present perfect tense and past perfect tense. After the administration of the test, the researcher created three telegram groups for the control, recast and prompt groups. Ten sixty-minute discussion sessions were held for each telegram group. In the recast group, the researcher gave recast feedback whenever the participants made a mistake in using simple past tense, present perfect tense and past perfect tense, in the prompt group, the researcher provided feedbacks of prompt type whenever mistakes were made by the participants, but in the control group, the participants discussed without receiving any treatment or feedback. After completing these 10 sessions, the same forty-item multiple choice test was administered to the three groups as a posttest examining the participants’ new knowledge of simple past tense, present perfect tense and past perfect tense and investigating whether the treatment had been effective or not. Noteworthy findings were recorded. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of both recast and prompt group while no significant difference was observed between the pretest and posttest of the control group. Another remarkable finding was that there was a significant difference between the effectiveness of recast and prompt feedback on the participants’ learning of the intended grammar point. In other words, the prompt group performed better in the posttest than the recast group.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether recast or prompt as two important corrective feedback (CF) could have different effects on learning grammatical rules of Iranian EFL learners. To fulfill the purpose, the researcher, first, administered an OPT on 67 pre-TOEFL learners, aging between 15 and 18, to select her subjects for the study. 48 of participants who scored between -1 and +1 SD of the mean were selected and assigned to three groups of control, recast and prompt. Each group had 16 participants. A forty-item multiple choice test was administered to the three groups as a pretest examining the participants’ knowledge of simple past tense, present perfect tense and past perfect tense. After the administration of the test, the researcher created three telegram groups for the control, recast and prompt groups. Ten sixty-minute discussion sessions were held for each telegram group. In the recast group, the researcher gave recast feedback whenever the participants made a mistake in using simple past tense, present perfect tense and past perfect tense, in the prompt group, the researcher provided feedbacks of prompt type whenever mistakes were made by the participants, but in the control group, the participants discussed without receiving any treatment or feedback. After completing these 10 sessions, the same forty-item multiple choice test was administered to the three groups as a posttest examining the participants’ new knowledge of simple past tense, present perfect tense and past perfect tense and investigating whether the treatment had been effective or not. Noteworthy findings were recorded. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest scores of both recast and prompt group while no significant difference was observed between the pretest and posttest of the control group. Another remarkable finding was that there was a significant difference between the effectiveness of recast and prompt feedback on the participants’ learning of the intended grammar point. In other words, the prompt group performed better in the posttest than the recast group.