1

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RECASTS AND

PROMPTS ON EFL SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
LEARNERS USE OF SIMPLE PAST TENSE FORM
A Research Proposal Paper

Yogi Saputra Mahmud
1104183

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
THE FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND ART EDUCATION
INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
BANDUNG
2014
2


Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1.Background .......................................................................................................... 1
1.2.Statement of Problems ......................................................................................... 3
1.3.The Purposes of the study .................................................................................... 3
1.4.The Purposes of the study .................................................................................... 3
1.5.Significance of Study .......................................................................................... 3
1.6.Definition of Key Terms ..................................................................................... 4
1.7.Limitations ........................................................................................................... 5
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Theoretical Background ..................................................................................... 6
2.2. Empirical Studies on Recasts and Prompts................................................... 7

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 9
3.2. Research Site and Participant ............................................................................. 9
3.3. Instrumentation ................................................................................................... 9
3.3. Scoring ............................................................................................................. 11
REFERENCES





3

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This research paper presents an introduction of the research paper that describes
background, statement of the problems, purposes of the study, hypothesis,
significance of the study, definition of key terms and limitations. Then, it also
describes literature review and research methodology that consists of research
site and participants, instrumentations, and scoring.

1.1. Background
Learning a foreign language is not a simple undertaking. There are some
factors in which someone might find it complex to learn foreign language, one of
them is the relationship between L1 and L2 (Saville-Troike, 2006, p.177). Since
the new linguistic features, new culture and new way of thinking are introduced
to students when they produce the foreign language, errors in producing the
language are inevitable. According to Mesbah & Mall-Amiri (2013), errors can
be viewed inevitable and positive part of language learning process since
language learning is a creative construction process. Although error in language
learning is inevitable, teacher should provide feedback for students. If the
teachers do not provide feedback for students error, the learners have no means
of judging the extent and appropriateness of their learning (Chastain, 1998; see
Gholizade, 2013, p. 418).
In the context of English Language Teaching in Indonesia, some students
often make errors in terms of linguistic features since there are some differences
between that of English and that of Bahasa Indonesia. One of the linguistic
features that the students usually make mistake is past tense forms. The errors,
4

based on the theory of second language development, occur because of learners
use their knowledge of L1 in producing L2 language (Saville-Troike, 2006). The
use of L1 knowledge in producing L2 language, however, may not be negative as
long as the L1 structure or rule is used in an L2 utterance considered
acceptable or correct. But it is negative when there are differences between
L1 and L2 rule. Bahasa Indonesia does not represent tense of time in infectional
verb as in English.
Feedbacks or error-corrections have been employed in L2 classrooms as one
of the effective focus on form and meaning techniques. There are many
definitions from many researchers about feedback, all of them indicate that,
Corrective feedback, the reactive component of form and meaning focused
instruction, is one way learners' attention can be drawn to the formal properties
of the target language'' and an indication to the learner that his or her use of the
target language is incorrect''. (Doughty & Williams, 1998; Mackey, Gass &
McDonough, 2006; Ortega & Long, 1997, Gholizade, 2013). Regarding this, it is
expected to be one way to make students realize the error so that the errors in the
use of past tense forms will be reduced.
Regarding the problems of students accuracy in using simple past tense
forms and the previous studies about types of feedback, implicit and explicit
which are expected as one of the ways to improve the students accuracy, this
research will discover the comparative study of recasts and prompts in improving
students accuracy in using past tense forms. Moreover, the researcher comes up
with a research proposal entitled: A Comparative Study of Recasts and Prompts
on EFL Senior High School Learners Use of Past Tense Forms.


5

1.2.Statement of Problems
This study will be conducted to answer the following questions:
1. Are the types of feedback chosen (recasts and prompts) able to improve
students accuracy in the use of past tense forms?
2. Which feedback strategy has more effect?

1.3.The Purposes of the Study
Based on the research questions, the purposes of this study are as follows:
1. To discover the effectiveness of recasts and prompts in improving students
accuracy in using past tense forms.
2. To discover the differences between recasts and prompts in terms of
effectiveness on EFL Senior High School learners use of past tense forms.

1.4.Hypothesis
In regards to the problems of this study, the hypotheses are made related to
this subject. Since the study follows quantitave method, then the hypothesis the
hypothesis should be formulated as the temporary answer toward the research
question (Sugiyono, 2011, p. 64).
The hypotheses formulated in this study are:
H
0
: There is no significant difference between students score in pre- test and
post-test
H
1
: There is no significant difference between students score in pre- test and
post-test

1.5.Significance of Study
This study is potentially significant in three aspects of contribution. The first is
its theoretical contribution to research in corrective feedback. The second is its
practical contribution to practice in teaching and learning in Indonesia. The third
is its professional contribution to teachers development.
6


Theoretically, this study offers some information on the application and the
comparative effect of recasts and prompts in a Senior High School EFL
classroom. It enriches the studies related to the application of the types of
feedbacks since the previous studies mainly focus only on ESL classroom setting
(Maolida, 2013, p. 4). Therefore, this study attempts to fill in the gap of previous
studies.

Practically, this study is beneficial for teachers to recognize different types of
corrective feedback so that they can apply them in their classroom interaction,
particularly on the use of past tense forms. The research findings in this area may
also provide English teachers with useful advice concerning their classroom error
correction.

Professionally, this study can be a reflection for the researcher and other teachers
in giving feedback to learners. It is expected that this study can give information
for teachers about the implementation of recasts and prompts in EFL classroom
setting.

1.6. Definition of Key Terms
1. Recast involves the teachers reformulation of all or part of the students
utterance, minus the error (Lyster and Ranta, 1997)
2. Prompt is a type of feedback which witholds correct forms and encourage
learners to self-correct (including clarification requests, metalinguistic clues,
repetition and elicitation of the correct form) (Lyster, 2002).
3. Accuracy refers to how well the target language is produced in relation to the
rule system of the target language (Ellis, 2005)


7

1.7. Limitations
This study might have some limitations. The first limitation is the number of
students who involve in this research is relatively small with 60 participants,
grouped into three different groups, 2 treatment groups and 1 control group. The
second limitation is that the students in this research are all Senior High School
students, so the findings may not be applicable for other levels.















8

CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW


2.1 Theoretical Background
Corrective Feedback has been defined by Lightbown and Spada (1999) as any
indication to the learners that their use of the target language is incorrect (p.
171). There are six types of Corrective Feedback proposed by Lyster and Ranta
(1997), namely Explicit Correction, Clarification Requests, Metalinguistic
Feedback, Elicitation, Repetition and Recasts. Two of the most important
categories recast as an implicit feedback and prompt (including Explicit
Correction, Clarification Requests, Metalinguistic Feedback, Elicitation, and
Repetition) as an explicit type of feedback have been considered in this study.

Recasts
Recasts are utterances that repeat a learners incorrect utterance, making only
the changes necessary to produce a correct utterance, without changing the
meaning (Nicholas, Lightbrown & Spada, 2001, p. 732-733; see also Mall-
Amiri & Mesbah, 2013, p. 18). For the L2 context, Lyster and Ranta (1997)
define recasts as "the teacher's reformulation of all or part of a student's
utterance, minus the error" (p. 46). It, apart from other types of feedback, has
attracted the attention of many researchers (Ellis & Sheen, 2006; Hawkes, 2003;
Shirazi, 2012). Some researchers also claim that Recasts have been the most
influential type of feedback (Long, Inagaky & Ortega, 1998; Ayoun, 2001). It
neither damages the learners' self-confidence nor does it "intrude unduly in the
communicative flow of the activity" (Loewen and Philp, 2006; see also Shirazi &
Sadighi, 2012, p. 440). It constitutes a brief time-out from communicating, which
allows the learner to focus explicitly but briefly on form" (Ellis, Loewen, Erlam,
9

2006, p. 363; Shirazi & Sadighi, 2012, p. 440). Hawkes (2003) states that
Recasts do not only provide positive evidence but also negative one, enhance
interaction, and make the target forms more salient. They arise from a
communicative language development in which both parties share "a joint
intentional focus" (Long, 2007, p.114; Shirazi & Sadighi, 2012, p. 440)

Apart from the merits of recasts, there are several drawbacks of the recasts itself.
First, the students are not usually followed by self- or peer-repair. In other
words, students only repeat the teachers' correct formulation of their utterances
(Baleghizadeh and Abdi, 2010; Shirazi & Sadighi, 2012). Ellis (2007) also adds
that since Recasts do not provide explicit explanation of the students mistake,
they are assumed to be ambiguous because they are difficult to distinguish from
non-corrective repetition (Shirazi & Sadighi, 2012, p. 440).

Prompts
Prompts are such one type of feedback which has been compared by some
researchers to Recasts in previous studies (Lyster, 2004, 2007; Lyster & Mori,
2006, 2008; Lyster & Ranta, 2007; Mall-Amiri & Mesbah, 2013). In comparing
Prompts to Recasts, Prompts provide signals that prompt learners to self-repair
while Recasts only provide the learners with a correct reformulation of their non-
target utterance (Mall-Amiri & Mesbah, 2013).

2.2.Empirical Studies on Recasts and Prompts
Several classroom studies have investigated the role of error correction which
show that the students who received error correction generally outperformed
those who did not receive feedback. Carroll and Swain (1993) probed into the
effects of 4 different types of feedback on L2 acquisition. One hundred subjects
were randomly assigned to 4 experimental groups and a control group. The
control group simply was told that their sentence was erroneous, while the
10

experimental groups received explicit error correction, recast, and metalinguistic
feedback. The analysis of data proved the superiority of the four experimental
groups in comparison to the control group.

There are considerable numbers of research which investigate the effects of
recasts versus prompts on students use of the simple past tense in English. For
example, Ellis, Loewen, and Erlam (2006) compared the effects of recasts versus
prompts on students use of the simple past tense in English. The prompts as
repetition plus a metalinguistic clue (e.g., you need the past tense), they found
the effects for prompts was higher than recasts on delayed posttest measures. In a
similar context, Ellis (2007) compared the effects of recasts and prompts on the
acquisition of past tense ed and comparative er in English. He found that
prompts were more effective than recasts. Havranek and Cesnik (2001) state that
prompts is the most effective feedback combination in the context of English as a
foreign language (EFL) classrooms. The fact that prompts are generally
outperformed the recasts has been supported by some researchers who claim that
there are several factors which influence the effectiveness of prompts over
recasts. First, recasts only benefit developmentally ready learners more than
unready learners Mackey and Phillip (1998) and learners with high accuracy
scores in their use of the target forms more than learners achieving low accuracy
scores (Ammar & Spada, 2006). Second, higher proficiency learners benefit
more than lower proficiency learners from recasts but also that, independent of
L2 proficiency, other learner characteristics associated with accurate L2
production after hearing a recast include phonological memory, attention control,
and analytic ability (Trofimovich, Ammar and Gatbonton, 2007). Ellis and Sheen
(2006) also add that there is no clear evidence that recasts work better for
acquisition than other aspects of interaction such as models, prompts, or explicit
corrective strategies. Indeed, there is some evidence that the last two of these are
more effective than recasts (p. 597).
11

CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Introduction
This research follows an experimental design in order to test for the differential
effects of recasts and prompts on students accuracy in using past tense forms.
This chapter presents the background information of the research site and
participants, research methodology, instruments and data collection procedures
and research design.

3.2.Research Site and Participant
This study will be conducted at one Senior High School in Bandung in which 60
participants from the school will be involved in this research. The participants are
the second grade students in the school and are expected to have relatively same
level of proficiency. The participants will be assigned to three different groups,
consisted of two treatment groups (T1 and T2) and one control group (C1). The
experimental group exposed to two kinds of treatment (recasts for recast groups
(T1), and prompts for prompt groups (T2) and control group without any
treatment.
3.3. Instrumentation
In this study, a variety of data collection instruments were used throughout the
data collection process to answer to the research questions, and these are
discussed below:
Pre-test
There will be three instruments used in measuring students understanding
toward the simple past tense forms, namely picture-description tasks, writing
12

task, and gap-filling. Picture-description tasks are commonly used as instruments
for data collection and analysis and as treatments in interaction research
(Iwashita, 2003; McDonough, 2005; Zhuo, 2010). In the beginning, sequential
3.2. Research Site and Participant9 pictures of a story will be shown to the
participants. The participants are required to describe what is in the picture
according to the specific instruction.In writing task, the participants view a
picture of holiday for the illustration and are instructed to write a text about their
holiday experience in two paraghraps. Each paragraph consists of six sentences.
The type of text is used since the focus of the study to investigate the effect of
two different types of feedback, namely Recasts and Prompts.
Treatment
The treatment sessions took place over four weeks following one week after the
pre-test. The treatment will be held two sessions per week. It consists of eight
sessions of four weeks (two sessions per week) of one hour. The material used in
the treatment of this study are a set of activities which allows the participants to
use the simple past tense forms. In the first phase of the instruction, the L2
teacher, through some examples such as recount texts and dialogues, provided a
brief explanation about the use of simple past tense forms as many L2
researchers have recommended, prompts cannot be used to elicit forms students
do not already know (Lyster, 2004). In the second phase of the instruction, the
participants are involved in some semi-controlled practice of that rule such as
telling stories based on given sequential pictures, fill in the blanks with the
correct form of the verbs and writing tasks of the activities that they did last
meeting. The three treatment tasks are similar in design to the pre-test task but
with different topics and different stories, and also Recasts will be applied for T1
classand prompts will be applied for T2 class. Meanwhile, the C1 class will not
receive any type of feedback. The typical responses to conversation in control
group classes were a verbal ''Okay'' or a non-verbal gesture such as a nod. The
13

aim of these treatments is to show any differential effects of recasts and prompts
on participants accuracy in using simple past tense forms.
Immediate Post-test and Delayed Post-test
A delayed post-test should be taken, in order to clarify whether the effect of these
particular treatments could be considered long-lasting (Mackey & Gass, 2005).
The immediate post-test will be held immediately after the last session while the
delayed post test will be held three weeks after the immediate post-test. The level
of the speaking of students produced on the pre-test were compared to those
produced on an immediate pre-test task the day after the final treatment and on a
delayed post-test task three weeks later the final treatment. The pre-test,
treatments, and both of the post-tests were in the form of picture-description
tasks, gap-filling and writing task.

3.3.Scoring
The oral production measured includes one form of task, pictorial story
description. Meanwhile, the written production measured include two forms of
task, gap filling and writing tasks. Digital audio recordings will be made of the
oral production produce by the students when they tell a story based on the
available pictures. The recordings are then transcribed in order to investigate the
effects of each type of correction feedbacks on participants accuracy in using
simple past tense form. The measurement is commonly the same as used in other
studies. (e.g. Crooks, 1989; Foster & Skehan, 1996; Gholizade, 2013). Accuracy
measures: percentage of error-free clauses, error per 100 words, percentage of
target-like use of simple past tense.

14

References

Ammar, A., & Spada, N. (2006). One size fits all? Recasts, prompts, and L2 learning.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 543-574.
Ayoun, D. (2001). The role of negative feedback in the second language acquisition
of the pass compose and imparfait. Modern Language Journal, 85(2), 226-
243.
Baleghizadeh, S. & Abdi, H. (2010). Recast and its impact on second language
acquisition. International Journal of Language Studies, 4( 4), 301-312.
Carroll, S., & Swain, M. (1993). Explicit and implicit negative feedback: An
empirical study of the learning of linguistic generalizations. Studies in Second
Language Acquisition, 15, 357- 386.
Chastain, K. (1998). Developing second language skills.Theory and practice.Third
Edition.
Crooks, G. (1989). Task classification: a Cross-disciplinary review. Technical report.
Honolulu: Center for second Language Classroom Research. Social Science
Research Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Doughty, C., & Williams, J. (1998a). Focus on form in classroom second language
acquisition. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Ellis, R. (2005). Measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language: A
psychometric study.Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Vol.27, 141-
172.
Ellis, R. (2007). The differential effects of corrective feedback on two grammatical
structures. In Shirazi, Z. & Sadighi, F. (2012). Implicit Versus Explicit
Feedback in Classroom: An Experimental Study. Journal of Language
Teaching and Research, Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 439-445
Ellis, R., Loewen, S. & Erlam, R. (2006). Implicit and explicit corrective feedback
and the acquisition of L2 grammar. Studies in Second Language Acquisition,
28 (2), 339-368.
Ellis, R., & Sheen, Y. (2006). Reexamining the role of recasts in second language
acquisition, 28, 575-600.
Foster, P., & Skehan, P. (1996). The influence of planning and task type on second
language performance.Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Vol. 19, p.
199-323.

15

Gholizade, R. (2013). The investigation of differential effects of recast and
metalinguistic feedback on accuracy, fluency, and complexity of speaking
performance of male and female EFL learners. JNAS Journal, Vol. 2, 417-
428
Havranek, G., & Cesnik, H. (2001). Factors affecting the success of corrective
feedback. EUROSLA Yearbook, Vol. 1, 99-122.
Hawkes, L. (2003). Recasts revisited: The role of recasts in error detection and
correction by adult ESL students. MA thesis. Queen's University at Kingston.
Iwashita, N. (2003). Negative feedback and positive evidence in task-based
interaction: Differential effects on L2 development. Studies in Second
Language Acquisition, Vol. 25, (1), P. 1-36.
Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (1999). How languages are learned. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Loewen & Philip, (2006). Recasts in the adult English L2 classroom:
characteristics, explicitness, and effectiveness. The Modern Language
Journal, 90, (4), 536-556.
Long, M. (2007). Problems in SLA. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Long, M., Inagaky, S. & Ortega, L. (1998). The role of implicit negative feedback in
SLA: Models and recast in Japanese and Spanish. The Modern Language
Journal, 82( 3), 357-371.
Lyster, R., & Mori, H. (2006). Interactional feedback and instructional
counterbalance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28, 269-300.
Lyster, R., & Mori, H. (2008). Instructional counterbalance in immersion pedagogy.
In Mall-Amiri, B., & Mesbah, M. (2013). The Comparitive Impact of Recast
And Prompt on EFL Learners' English Tense Awareness and Use of Tenses in
Writing. International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics
World (IJLLALW): Volume 3(4),14-41
Lyster, R., & Ranta, L., (1997). Corrective feedback and learner uptake: Negotiation
of form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, 19(1), 37 -66.
Lyster, R., (2002). Negotiation in immersion teacher-student interaction.
International. Journal of Educational Research, 37(3-4), 237-253.
Lyster, R. (2004). Differential effects of prompts and recasts in form-focused
instruction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Vol.26 (3); P.399-432.
Mackey, A., & Philip, J. (1998). Conversational interaction and second language
development: Recasts, responses, and red herrings? Modern Language
Journal, 82, 338-356.
16

Mackey, A., Gass, S., & McDonough, K. (2006). How do learners perceive
interactional Feedback? Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Vol.22, p.
471-497.
Mall-Amiri, B., & Mesbah, M. (2013). The comparitive impact of recast And prompt
on EFL learners' English tense awareness and use of tenses in writing.
International Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World
(IJLLALW): Volume 3(4),14-41
Maolida, E. (2013). Oral corrective feedback and learner uptake in a young learner
EFL classroom (A case study in an English course in Bandung). Bandung:
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia.
McDonough, K. (2005). Identifying the contributions of negative feedback and
learners' responses to L2 development. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition, Vol. 27, p.79-103.
Nicholas, B., Lightbown, P.M., & Spada, N. (2001). Recasts as feedback to language
learners. Language Learning. 51,719-758.
Ortega, L., & Long, M. (1997). Planning and focus on form in L2 oral performance.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Vol.21, p.108-148.
Shirazi, Z. & Sadighi, F. (2012). Implicit versus explicit feedback in classroom: An
experimental study. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 3, No.
3, pp. 439-445
Sugiyono. (2011). Metode penelitian kuantitatif kualitatif dan r&d. Bandung: CV
Alfabeta.
Saville-Troike, M. (2006). Introducing second language acquistion. New York:
Cambridge University Press
Trofimovich, P., Ammar, A., & Gatbonton, E. (2007). How effective are recasts? The
role of attention, memory, and analytical ability. In Mall-Amiri, B., &
Mesbah, M. (2013). The comparitive impact of recast and prompt on EFL
learners' English tense awareness and use of tenses in writing. International
Journal of Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World (IJLLALW):
Volume 3(4),14-41
Zhuo, C. (2010). Explicit recast , implicit recast and the application of English noun
plural: A comparative study. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol.33
(6).