THE ROLE OF RECAST AND UPTAKE IN ESL TEACHERLEARNER CONVERSATIONS

The study examined the role of recast and learner uptake following corrective recast in a group setting of teacherlearner conversations. Three female Universiti Teknologi Malaysia students in their twenties participated in the study. The relationship among types of uptake, linguistic focus of recast and the nature of recast were examined. The interactions between the female teacher and the group of female learners in a semiformal interaction setting were recorded using an audio recording device. The recorded interactions were transcribed and coded for the types of learner uptake (Correct Uptake Episode (CUE), No Uptake Episode (NUE) or Incorrect Uptake Episode (IUE)), linguistic focus of recast (Morphosyntactic / Lexical) and the nature of recast (length of recast / degree of change / saliency of recast). Findings indicate that learners provided CUE and NUE in response to the teacher recast. Lexical recast has appeared to elicit more correct uptake by the learners. Recasts that are shorter, and involved one or two changes in the form of Repetition and Reformulation were found to be more assessable by the learners and more effective in generating successful repair.