Elicitation, Recast, and Meta-Linguistic Feedback in Form-Focused Exchanges: Effects of Feedback Modality on Multimedia Grammar Instruction

This research explores the effects of three computer-mediated feedback modalities, that is, elicitation, recast, and meta-linguistics, on the learning of English participial, gerund, and infinitival phrases among Iranian intermediate-level EFL learners. The overriding focus of the present study was to investigate whether different types of feedback given through form-focused computer-human exchanges would produce varying immediate and long-term effects on the participants’ incorporation of linguistic forms. To this end, 160 participants were randomly assigned to three equivalent experimental groups. One group then received treatment on the three types of phrases through a tutorial system and multimedia grammar exercises where they received elicitation on the errors they made. The second and the third groups likewise received treatment on the same types of phrases through the same tutorial system, but received either recast or meta-linguistic feedback on their errors. The groups then sat for an immediate and a delayed post-test of grammar two weeks after the experiment. The experiment revealed that meta-linguistic feedback yielded the strongest immediate and sustained effects as compared with those of elicitation and recast. Likewise, while recast produced stronger immediate effects on learning as compared to those of elicitation, its sustained effects were much smaller than those of elicitation and meta-linguistic feedback.