AsiaTEFL Logo        The Journal of Asia TEFL
   
The Journal of Asia TEFL
Articles By Subject
Current Issue
Past Issues
Special Issue
Information of the Journal
Editorial Board
Submission Guidelines
Ethical Guidelines
Manuscript Submission
Journal Order
Search
Today 544
Total 5,467,159
Current Issue
Go List

Volume 6 Number 3, Autumn 2009, Pages 1-401   


PDF Download
   

Recast and Metalinguistic Feedback in Teaching and Learning L2 Writing: A Comparative Study

    Mojtaba Mohammadi


Corrective feedback has long been raised in education and psychology, but has attracted much attention in recent years, especially with the advent of form-focused instruction. Great many studies have been conducted to investigate the efficacy of the corrective feedback and its types in the process of language learning and teaching. The purpose of this paper is to study the efficacy of recast and metalinguistic clues as two types of feedback. By selecting these two types, the study also aimed at comparing the implicit and explicit types of feedback. To this end, 81 university students were randomly selected in two groups in an essay writing course. Two target structures were adopted: relative clause, and passive case. One group received their feedback on these structures using recast, and the other group received metalinguistic clues. The structure subtest of TOEFL was administered as pre- and posttest. The findings of the study indicated that while both proved efficient to some degrees, metalinguistic clues were more efficacious than its counterpart, recast. This study also suggested that corrective feedback, no matter what type is being put to use, could provide a highlighted input, for it raises a selective attention for the input on the side of the learners and this physical saliency can work for the betterment of language learning.

Keywords: recast, metalinguistic feedback, explicit and implicit feedback, L2 writing