Negative Evidence and Its Explicitness and Positioning in the Learning of Korean as a Heritage Language

This study examined the effectiveness of negative evidence and its explicitness and positioning factors in the learning of Korean as a heritage language at the postsecondary level. The explicitness factor was divided into explicit versus implicit categories, depending on the presence or absence of an alternative corrective form during interaction. The positioning factor was divided into proactive versus reactive categories, depending on whether negative evidence utterances were provided prior to or immediately after the learner's deviant form during interaction. Forty-five second-generation Korean-American learners were randomly assigned to the following conditions: (a) explicit/proactive; (b) explicit/reactive; (c) implicit/reactive; and (d) provision of backchannels (control). It was revealed that negative evidence was indeed effective in either explicit or implicit form, but the benefits of negative evidence became more prominent when the negative evidence utterances immediately followed the learners' production of a non-target-like form than when the negative evidence utterances preceded their output. Although negative evidence helped the heritage learners to retreat from the non-target-like form, the positive effects of negative evidence faded over time.