Effects of corrective feedback on L2 acquisition of tense-aspect verbal morphology

Abstract

In this study, the effectiveness of implicit corrective feedback was examined with a group of 30 sixteen-year-old English native speakers learning French, who received either recasts or clarification requests on errors they made with the passé composé and the imparfait. The control group did not receive any feedback. Overall, the results indicate that recasts were more effective in improving accuracy of form and use for both the passé composé and the imparfait. However, an examination of language development with reference to the Aspect Hypothesis and the inherent lexical aspect of verbs showed that no change occurred between the pretest and the posttests. The passé composé was associated exclusively with achievement verbs, whereas the imparfait was limited to several frequent irregular stative verbs and a few activity verbs.

The relation of second language acquisition, instructed second language acquisition, and language teaching from the lens of second language tense-aspect

“…In addition, six studies provided information on how their instruction fit into their existing curriculum or pedagogy by giving more information than typically reported in studies of this type. Fazilatfar et al (2017), Loewen and Inceoglu (2016), Ishida (2004), Mifka-Profozic (2015), Lee et al (2007), and Nishi and Shirai (2016) gave information on order of instruction, duration of instruction, textbooks, or instructional approaches used in the programs in which the studies took place.…”

“…Likewise, studies exploring the effect of corrective feedback on tense-aspect are equally split on providing a linguistic description of the target (Table 7). Ellis (2007), McDonough (2007), and Mifka-Profozic (2015) all provide linguistic descriptions of the instructional targets. In contrast, in studies of the effect of processing instruction on tense-aspect, linguistic descriptions of the target are often not given, but examples are sometimes given (Table 5).…”

“…Four of the 12 corrective feedback studies engage with research reports on the L2 acquisition of tense-aspect (Ayoun, 2004; Ishida, 2004; McDonough, 2007; Mifka-Profozic, 2015). For example, McDonough (2007) uses the tense-aspect literature to identify the instructional target: activities have been repeatedly demonstrated to be the last of the dynamic verbs to occur with the preterite (or perfective past), and thus she identifies activities in the past tense in English as her instructional target.…”

“…Other studies (Ishida, 2004; Izquierdo, 2014; Mifka-Profozic, 2015) reflected the SLA research on tense-aspect in their research questions. Ishida (2004) addressed three research questions, the second of which addresses the literature in tense-aspect acquisition on Japanese.…”

“…Finally, Mifka-Profozic (2015) conducted a corrective feedback study whose second research question specifically addressed whether instruction can facilitate progress through acquisitional sequences: ‘Do recasts and clarification requests have an effect on L2 acquisition of the passé composé and the imparfait in terms of use with respect to the lexical aspect of verbs in relation to the Aspect Hypothesis, where it was hypothesized that the effects of corrective feedback might be observed through accelerated progression across the predicted stages of acquisition?’ (p. 151). Although the results showed that both passé composé and the imparfait benefited from recasts, corrective feedback did not accelerate the stages; that is, passé compose was used primarily with achievements (and did not spread to accomplishments and activities) and imparfait was associated primarily with statives (with a few activities) and did not spread to activities and accomplishments in the amount of time allotted.…”