Recasts : the role of noticing and learners' proficiency level

• Main Author: Katamine, Louise Elizabeth
• Published: University of Bristol 2013
• Subjects: 370.15
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.685154

The present study investigates the differential affects of learner proficiency on the provision and noticing of recasts. Noticing was measured by uptake, which was defined as a learner's response to a recast and by learners' stimulated recall comments. The participants were adult Arabic ESL learners in a low and high proficiency class. It was found that the high proficiency group was provided with a greater incidence of recasts and were also provided with predominantly more long and complex recasts than the low proficiency group. It was also found that when learners produced uptake, both proficiency groups largely understood the corrective intent of the recast. Both proficiency groups demonstrated high levels of noticing recasts and the high proficiency learners demonstrated greater levels of noticing linguistic forms than the low proficiency learners. This was attributed to the high proficiency learners' risk-taking behaviour, increased attention to form and heightened metalinguistic awareness. It was suggested that low proficiency learners were less receptive to recasts than high proficiency learners because recasts exceeded the low proficiency learners' processing limits and attentional capacity. This study supports earlier findings that claim that recasts are more beneficial for high proficiency learners.