Exploring the relationship between characteristics of recasts and learner uptake

This study presents a taxonomy of the recasts that arose in communicative ESL and EFL classrooms. The taxonomy is used to examine the relationship between different characteristics of recasts and learner uptake/repair. Characteristics that were significantly related to uptake were the length of recasts (short vs. long), the linguistic focus (pronunciation vs. grammar), the type of change (substitution vs. addition). Also, these features - along with mode (declarative vs. interrogative), the use of reduction (partial recasts) and the number of changes (one vs. multiple) - were associated with learner repair. These results are discussed in terms of a general distinction between implicit and explicit recasts and the extent to which recasts are salient to learners linguistically and pragmatically. The study suggests that explicit recasts lead to more uptake/repair because they are focused on a single linguistic feature and the reformulated item is salient to learners.