Abstract
Incidental recasts are a type of corrective feedback referring to recasts provided in response to errors that occur incidentally (e.g., Loewen, 2005). There are two variables that affect incidental recasts that have largely been ignored in previous studies: a) the number of recasts provided, and b) whether the learner is an addressee or an auditor of the recast. For the first variable, it is natural to assume that the greater the number of recasts provided for a target feature, the more effective the feedback. As for the second variable, we would anticipate that recasts are more effective for the addressee than for an auditor. The present study was conducted to examine these hypotheses. Twenty-six ESL learners participated in a treatment — immediate posttest — delayed posttest design of study. Four grammatical features were chosen as target structures among all of the recasts provided during the implementation of a series of text-manipulation tasks that lasted two hours. These features were selected as target structures based on the total number of recasts provided on them. Two of the structures (major target structures) received a total of 39 recasts combined, whereas the other two (minor target structures) combined, received 11 recasts. The results show that the effectiveness of incidental recasts for minor target structures was negligible regardless of whether the students were addressees or auditors. In contrast, the incidental recasts for major target structures were effective only for the addressees, but not for the auditors. This effectiveness, however, disappeared at the delayed posttest. This study suggests the necessity to take into account the number of recasts provided as well as to analyze data according to addresses and auditors when investigating the effectiveness of incidental recasts.
