Corrective Feedback and L2 Vocabulary Development: Prompts and Recasts in the Adult ESL Classroom

This study investigates the effects of corrective feedback in the form of prompts and recasts on second language vocabulary development. The study employed pre-test/post-test/delayed post-test design. Intermediate adult ESL learners (N = 23) in a community college located in the southwestern United States were categorized into three groups: prompts, recasts, and control. The treatment consisted of a four-step vocabulary activity during which either prompts, recasts, or no feedback was provided. The outcomes were tested using measures based on a three-dimensional L2 vocabulary development model. The findings appear to indicate that prompts and recasts were equally beneficial in the short term and that prompts were slightly more advantageous in the longer term. However, the prompts group was the only one that demonstrated significant increases over time on all three dimensions of vocabulary development as they were operationalized for this study.