College of Arts
Department of English
2016 2015
Focus on form is one of the feedback`s types which defined by (Long ,1998)
as interactional moves directed at raising learners awareness of forms . The
other type is focus on content feedback as they arise incidentally in lesson
whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication .
Ellis describes form-focused instruction as any planned or incidental
instructional activity that
is intended to induce language learners to pay attention to linguistic
form(Ellis 2001) .
Learner`s perspective about recast :
The teachers recast in second language classroom play a role in second
language acquisition as Long and Robinson ,1998 argued that recasts are
affective in showing learners how their current interlanguage differs from
the target . Although Doughty and Varelas pointed out that learners who
received corrective recast improved their second language acquisition
rather than learners who received no systematic corrective feedback .
Long and Robinson (1998) suggested that recast are an effective way of
providing learners with information about how their current inter language
differs from the target language .
(Truscott, 1999) believed that feedback lead to only superficial or
temporary changes in learners language performance and is not worth the
risk of negative affective reactions .
Doughty (1999) discusses cognitive explanations for the effectiveness of
recasts as examples of focus on form (Long, 1991) in L2 learning .
In a classroom in which the focus is usually on meaning rather than form or
in conversations outside the classroom, such responses to learner
Some teachers use the recast in second language classroom to let their
students attention about something .
Schmidt (1990, 1993, 1995) argued that attention is necessary for learning.
Robinson (1996) examined the effects of four task conditions that aimed to
differentially manipulate the focus of learner attention during exposure to
targeted Second language structures differing in complexity .
Attention allows learners to notice a gap between what they produce/know
and what is produced by the speakers of the second language . The
perception of a gap or mismatch may lead to grammar restructuring (Gass
and Varonis 1994: 299).
Gass and Mackey note that the interaction itself may also direct learners
attention to something new, such as a new lexical item or grammatical
construction, thus promoting
the development of the L2.
These explanations about the attention and noticing are important for
second language acquisition .
The references :
Gass, S. and E. Varonis. 1994. Input, interaction, and second language production,
Studies in Second Language Acquisition 16: 283302.
Gass, S. 1997. Input, Interaction, and the Second Language Learner. Mahwah. NJ:
Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates.
Lyster, R. 1998a. Recasts, repetition, and ambiguity in L2 classroom discourse, Studies
in Second Language Acquisition 20: 5181.
Mackey, A. 1999. Input, interaction, and second language development: An empirical
study of
question formation in ESL, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 21: 55787.
Schmidt, R. and S. Frota. 1986. Developing basic conversational ability in a second
language :A case study of an adult learner of Portuguese in R. Day (ed.): Talking to learn:
Conversation in second language acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House, pp. 237326 .
Schmidt, R. 1990. The role of consciousness in second language learning, Applied
Linguistics11: 12958.
Spada, N. and P. M. Lightbown. 1993. Instruction and the development of questions in
L2
classrooms, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 15: 20524.
Philp, J. (1999). Interaction, noticing, and second language acquisition: An examination
of learners noticing . of recasts in task-based interaction. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, University of Tasmania, Australia.
Robinson, P. (1996). Learning simple and complex second language rules under implicit,
incidental, rule-search, and instructed conditions. Studies in Second Language Acquisition,
18, 2767.
Schwartz, B. (1993). On explicit and negative data effecting and affecting competence
and linguistic behavior. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 15, 147165.
Truscott, J. (1998). Noticing in second language acquisition: A critical review. Second
Language Research, 14, 103135.