Prompts, uptake, modified output, and repair for L2 learners with foreign language classroom anxiety

• Main Author: Christopher D. Shulby
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de Brasília 2012-10-01
• Series: Horizontes
• Subjects: feedback corretivo oral; estímulos corretivos; reformulações corretivas; ansiedade; reparo
• Online Access: http://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/horizontesla/article/view/5262

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects which prompts had on learners with high and low anxiety. It has been suggested by the research literature that recasts have negatively affected learners with high anxiety. This has been a point of contention in the debate of whether explicit negative oral grammar correction is useful in L2 acquisition. Given that anxiety IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) have become increasingly common, the argument against OCF (Oral Corrective Feedback) warrants attention. It is important to note that there is lack of research investigating the effects of prompts on learners with anxiety disorders. This is an answer to that call. For this study four groups were formed: high anxiety learners given prompts, low anxiety learners given prompts, high anxiety learners given recasts, and low anxiety learners given recasts. The results of the study did confirm that recasts were in fact detrimental to the success of learners with high anxiety. More positively, the current study also showed that learners with high anxiety outperformed all other groups when given prompts as corrective feedback. This could be due to the increased amounts of uptake, modified output and repair. The results also concur with contemporary research that prompts are generally beneficial to all learners