The Influence of Saliency and Frequency of Morphosyntactic Structures on Attention to Recasts during Spoken Interaction

Abstract

Studies on the effectiveness of recasts have drawn mixed results, which is possibly due to the role of attention to recast, or lack thereof, during interaction. According to Goldschneider and DeKeyser (2001), it is suggested that attention is associated with saliency and frequency of structures. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine how different levels of saliency and frequency affect interlocutor’s attention to recast. Learners engaged in interaction tasks that elicited separate morphosyntactic structures with four different dyadic composites: +salient/ + frequent, +salient/ -frequent, -salient/ + frequent, and - salient/ -frequent. The amount of recast given on each dyad was controlled in order to control the effects of frequency of the recast itself. To determine which recasts were attended to for which structure, instances of uptake were identified. In addition, after completion of the interaction tasks, written and spoken tests on the target structures were given. The number of uptakes together with performance on the tests was compared between dyads. Statistical differences in the number of uptakes and test scores between dyads would suggest differences in levels of attention to recast as a function of differences in levels of saliency and frequency of targeted structures. To confirm that the attention to recasts is associated with test scores statistical correlations are conducted. Results and discussion of results are presented.



Author Information
Nutchaya Yatsom, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
Chomraj Patanasorn, Khon Kaen University, Thailand

Paper Information
Conference: ACLL2015
Stream: Language education

This paper is part of the ACLL2015 Conference Proceedings (View)
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Posted by James Alexander Gordon