The Differential Effects of Corrective Feedback Before and After Explicit Instruction

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of prompts and recasts, according to two learning stages: One before explicit instruction, and the other after explicit instruction. On two occasions, individual students participated in communicative tasks during dyadic interaction with the researcher, and were provided with feedback in the form of either prompts or recasts. The tasks were designed to provide contexts where use of the targeted English prepositions was obligatory. Between the tasks, explicit instruction was offered to each participant, and soon after the tasks, the knowledge of the prepositions was tested through post-test (1) and post-test (2). Results showed that recasts benefited participants more than prompts in the early stage, and prompts benefited participants more than recasts in the later stage. The careful examination of the results, however, is necessary to understand the study.