The effects of recast and metalinguistic oral corrective feedback on the perception and production of intonation patterns (fall and rise) of English wh-questions in L2 learners.

Abstract

The current study aimed to establish the effects of perceptual training and production training using recast and metalinguistic oral corrective feedback (OCF) for the intonation patterns (fall and rise) of English wh-questions in L2 learners. Additionally, a non-word repetition task (NWRT) to measure phonological working memory (PWM), a listening span task (LST) to measure central executive (CE) ability, and a listening proficiency test were used to explore their associations with the perception and production of the intonation patterns of English wh-questions, and the two types of OCF (recast and metalinguistic) provided. 40 participants were randomly allocated to two experimental groups; all of them received the same perceptual training. As for the production training, the groups were given either recast or metalinguistic OCF individually. Participants were given pre- and post-tests to measure their perception and production of the intonation patterns for English wh-questions. Results showed that both types of OCF had a similar impact on improving the production accuracy of the patterns for wh-questions after training. As for the perception ability, participants showed a near ceiling effect before training which did not leave much room for improvement. Measures of PWM, CE ability and proficiency level did not show any connections with perception or production abilities of these L2 learners nor the two types of OCF. Finally, production training with OCF may seem to be a useful strategy to improve L2 speech production beyond the level of segments.