ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter, we examined textual enhancement as a tool to focus on grammar in communicative context. This approach was concerned with raising learners’ attention to grammatical forms by making target forms perceptually more salient through typographical manipulation of certain aspects of the input. In this chapter, we will discuss interactional feedback as another technique to draw learners’ attention to grammatical forms in communicative contexts. This approach is based on an interactionist perspective to SLA and the assumption that negotiated interaction (i.e., interactional modifications made in the course of conversation) is essential for language acquisition. It has been proposed that, through negotiation, learners not only communicate their meaning, but can also receive corrective feedback on their ill-formed utterances through the use of conversational strategies such as clarification requests, confirmation checks, repetition, recasts, etc., that take place during interaction (e.g., Gass, 2003; Gass & Varonis, 1994; Long, 1991, 1996; Pica, 1994, 1998).
