Rethinking Recasts: A Learner-Centered Examination of Corrective Feedback in the Japanese Language Classroom

要旨

This chapter looks at the question of how learners respond when corrective feedback takes place in Japanese foreign language classrooms.&s; Studies of corrective feedback in second language classrooms have traditionally focused on the teacher-student exchange. Correcting errors is, after \nall, something that language teachers do. Researchers interested in teacher \nuse of corrective feedback have questioned the effectiveness of the classroom correction of student errors. At one time, language learning was \nviewed as development of stimulus-response "habits," and all errors were \nto be stamped out, with the idea that they could be prevented. In Japanese \nlanguage teaching today, proponents of rigorous error correction work \nwith the intent of preventing fossilization. 2 The necessity felt by some of \ncorrecting every error, however, lies in contrast with the results of studies \nof developmental sequences. These studies have found that learners follow \npredictable developmental paths, with nontarget-like forms along the way \noccurring as part of developmental stages that must be passed through on the way to acquiring the a,bility to use particular forms in target-like ways. \nFor example, work on the development of negation in Japanese has shown \nthat nontarget-like forms are part of a predictable developmental sequence \non the way to acquisition of appropriate negation strategies (Kanagy, 1994, \nin press). However, variable success by learners in acquiring the target language has led researchers to consider how form-focused instruction or \nconsciousness-raising activities might alter the path of second language \nacquisition (SLA; Doughty & Williams, 1998; Fotos, 1993). Corrective \nfeedback is one way offocusing learner attention on second language (L2) \ngrammatical form (Koyanagi, Moroishi, Muranoi, Ota, & Shibata, 1994; \nLightbown & Spada, 1990).

主題