The present study attempted to investigate the effect of reduction recasts on the improvement of the
speaking ability of Iranian intermediate level EFL learners.
Methodology
Participants of the study comprised of 44 students from one language institutes with intermediate
level of language proficiency in Mashhad. They had been selected through a PET language
proficiency test and randomly assigned in two independent groups; the experimental group and
comparison group. The experimental group received reduction recast, while the comparison group
received non-reduction recast. They had four hours of English per week and totally they took part in
10 sessions of treatment. They were EFL learners with homogeneous language proficiency. Since the
gender was not considered as a moderator variable for this study, only male students were chosen.After the treatment, both groups were given a similar test.
Results
The scores of two groups the experimental group was significantly greater than that of the comparison group.
Conclusion
In this study, the impact of reduction recasts, as one type of corrective feedback, on speaking ability
was investigated. The results indicated that reduction recasts did significantly improve the speaking
ability of the experimental group. The present study proves that reduction recast improved EFL learners‘ speaking ability, especially among intermediate learners. For future studies researchers suggest exploring the effect of other types of recast on other skills.