Relative Effects of Explicit and Implicit Feedback: The Role of Working Memory Capacity and Language Analytic Ability

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of two cognitive factors (i.e. working memory capacity [WMC] and language analytic ability [LAA]) in the extent to which L2 learners benefit from two different types of feedback (i.e. explicit correction and recasts). Forty-eight adult native speakers of English, who had no previous exposure to the target language (i.e. Turkish), were randomly assigned into explicit correction, recast, and control (no feedback) groups. Learners performed two tasks with a native speaker of Turkish where their errors on two Turkish target structures (i.e. locative and plural) were treated according to their group assignment. Oral production, comprehension, and recognition tests were used to measure learners' resulting performance. Learners' WMC and LAA were measured with the operation span task (Turner and Engle 1989) and a subtest of the LLAMA Aptitude Tests (Meara 2005), respectively. Results showed that WMC and LAA moderated the effect of feedback group on both structures. Moreover, follow-up analyses revealed that explicit correction worked better than recasts only when the learners in the compared groups had high cognitive ability (high WMC or high LAA).