Paper short abstract:

The study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of recasts, a type of oral corrective feedback, provided to the speech errors of "Keigo" of 15 Polish university students. The result indicate that recast is more amenable to lexical structures than morphosyntactical structures.

Paper long abstract:

Keigo, or Japanese Honorific Expressions would be one of the most difficult grammar issues even for learners with upper intermediate level. Taking the standpoint that the appropriate use of Keigo will contribute to expressing respect to others and to valuing cultural diversity, the present study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of recasts, a type of oral corrective feedback that consists of teachers' implicit reformulation of students' speech errors of Keigo.

The data came from 1-hour one-to-one tutorial sessions between the researcher and the participants conducted in March 2019. The participants were 15 Polish university students majoring in Japanese studies. They engaged in a tour-guiding role play which was designed to elicit various Keigo, and they received recasts on their erroneous use or avoidance of the structure. The task is composed of 6scenes of interaction with customers and a tour guide. If a participant produces the correct form in the latter part of the task that he/she has one received recast, or "primed production" is observed, it is marked as a proof of the effectiveness.

Their performances were video-recorded. They were then asked to watch the video clip and make comments on their recast episodes (i.e., stimulated recall). Their recall comments are coded depending on their level of understanding the nature of the errors.

The result was different depending on the type of Keigo. The primed productions of honorific lexical verbs such as 'irassharu', 'meshiagaru', and syntactic humble expressions such as 'saseteitadaku', were observed in all the 15 participants. The recall comment of the episodes of the primed productions indicated the correct understanding of the nature of the errors.

However, the recall comments regarding morphosyntactical honorifics such as 'kawareru' or 'okaini naru 'meaning to buy, they felt just difficult to reproduce. Also, the recall comments indicate the difficulty of using Keigo with the purpose of prohibition or request.

In targeting Keigo, too, the result indicates the same tendency that recast is more amenable to lexical structures than morphosyntactical structures. Also, it indicated the difficulty lies in the consistency of using Keigo in a long discourse.

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