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MAKING REPETITION INTERESTING

Penny Ur

2006

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Repetition as a component of language learning

I would argue that there are three major channels of learning in the FL classroom:

1.Explicit consciousness-raising (explaining, talking ‘about’ the language)

2.Communication (using the language purposefully to convey or receive meanings)

3.Practice (focusing on repetition of target items)

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Why repetition through practice?

The ‘skill’ model: declarative knowledge transforms into procedural knowledge (the ‘strong interface’ model (Dekeyser, Johnson)

The ‘frequency’ hypothesis (Ellis, 2002).

Teachers’ professional intuitions

Learners’ preferences

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Effective repetition through practice

Quantity

Pre-learning

Success-orientation

Teacher assistance

Heterogeneity

Interest

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Interim recap

In this session we shall be looking at ONE of the components of an effective language teaching/learning program: repetition through practice…

… and at ONE crucial feature of this component: interest.

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1. The stages of learning new language

items

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a) From dependence to independence

It’s not that learners move from ‘not knowing’ to ‘knowing’…

…But rather from ‘not knowing at all’ to ‘noticing’ to ‘knowing if you remind and support them’ and finally to ‘knowing on their own’ (Vygotzky,1978).

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b) From passive recognition to active production

Learners normally achieve passive mastery (recognizing something when they see it, but wouldn’t have been able to produce it on their own) before they achieve active mastery.

So, putting a) and b) together, we’re talking about at least four stages in the gradual acquisition of new language items:

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The learner perceives and ‘notices’ the new item, with help

The learner can recognize it only if helped, can’t produce

The learner can recognize it on his/her own, but can produce only if helped

The learner can both recognize and produce it on his / her own

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For example:

Supposing you’ve presented the words ‘dog’ and ‘cat’ for the first time last lesson, using pictures, and now want to review them.

Do you:

1) re-present the words yourself at the beginning of the lesson?

2) elicit the words at the beginning of the lesson?

Do you:

1) Show the pictures and ask learners ‘what’s this?’?

2) Show the pictures, say ‘It’s a cat’ and get them to point to the appropriate picture?

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2. The need for repetition

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Research:

a) Adults / adolescents need between 6 and 16 encounters with a new word before they remember it (Zahar et al., 2001). Younger learners probably need even more.

b) ‘Distributed’ practice is probably better than ‘massed’ (Baddeley, 1990).

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What are the implications of a) and b) for practice?

Probably we need to do an immense amount of deliberate re-cycling of new language (letters, sounds, words, ‘chunks’, grammatical structures).

This recycling, or repetition, needs to be scattered (‘distributed’), not all in one go.

So we should be leading constant ‘cumulative’ review exercises.

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Interim summary: repetition at the various levels of learning

1. Noticing

simple display

pictures and explanation

(significant) occurrence in a story

(significant) occurrence within teacher-talk

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2. Recognition

matching

true/false

classifying

multiple choice

drawing

‘bingo’

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3. ‘Scaffolded’ Production

recitations

dialogues learnt by heart

(prepared) dictation

games based on set basic patterns

answering (lower-level) questions

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4. Independent Production

(unprepared) dictation

response to a picture

answering (higher-level) questions

discussion

free writing

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3. The problem of interest

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Interest-creating features Variety

Purposeful meaning-making (communication)

Success-orientation

Visual focus (use of board, pictures …)

Game-like tasks

Personalization

Entertainment (songs, jokes, drama, humour)

Open-endedness (lots of right responses)

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1. VarietyMatching (recognition)1. Format

1.blacka)short

2.tallb)small

3.bigc) sad

4.happy

d) white

1. black2. tall3. big4. happy

a) smallb) whitec) sadd) short

happy

big tall

white sad

short black

small

a cowa birda chairthe floor

is small

has four feet

can sing

I can sit on it

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What’s your name? It’s six o’clock

Where is it? Fine, thank you

How are you? My name’s Elliot

What’s the time? Over there!

Can I … sit down!

What’s the … understand!

I don’t … help you?

Please … matter?

happy a clock sad

a cat

Matching2. Content

positivedangerous

delighted

shocked

ugly

attractive

negativebrave

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an ancient an aged an antique an old a mature

house soldier student book dolphin woman

the beautiful lots of the tall the long the first a cold the good the last a sad a good-looking

hair tree friend train winter people princess money bus day water kids prince

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Different ways we can vary the content of matching exercises:

‘Closed’ matches‘Open’ matches

opposites

word-picture

parts of ‘chunks’

L1 – L2

synonyms

etc.

adjectives-nouns

associations

verbs+objects

verbs+adverbs

collocations

etc.

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2. Purposeful meaning-making

Information-gap exercises

Picture dictations

Guessing

Filling in information on a grid

Combining arrangement

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Combining arrangement

1)

2)

3)

4)

1)

2)

3)

4)

Student A Student B

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3. Success-orientation

easy to get right

more than one way of getting it right

use of L1 to clarify

choice between ‘success’ and ‘more success’ (rather than ‘success’ and ‘failure’)

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Find at least three things to put in each column

a clock, a dog, a dress, a mother, black, a pen, bread, pants, bag, a husband, red, boots, a cat, rice, a frog, a baby, pink, a teenager, a hat, a banana, a book, a sheep, meat, kids, a desk, green, an elephant, salt, a t-shirt, white

animalscolorsthingsfoodclothespeople

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4. Visual Focus

picture-based activities

adding graphic components:joining-with-a-linefilling-incirclingchanging

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JackieJoe Mitch

DanSid

Chuck

Jackie has a big hat. Mitch has a dog. Chuck has a bottle of Coca Cola. Dan is running to a house. Sid has long hair.

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5. Game-like tasks

Guessing-games (mime, what’s in my bag, I-spy, what’s the picture etc.)

Beat-the-clock games

Dialogue-based games (detectives, ‘wrangling’, acting)

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6. Personalization

Preferences

Ideas

Experiences

Opinions

Feelings

Ambitions

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What’s your favourite? Write in order.

red, yellow, green, blue

1._______ 2.________ 3._______ 4._________

singing, dancing, reading, watching TV

1._______ 2.________ 3._______ 4._________

mangoes, oranges, apples, bananas

1._______ 2.________ 3._______ 4._________

Introducing self

Rewriting texts

Interviews

Surveys

Telling (true) stories

Opinion essays

Filling in forms

Questionnaires

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7. Entertainment

songs

video

stories

plays

humour

drama

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Match

We’ve just got married!

I’ve failed my driving test.

I’ve broken up with my boyfriend!

I’ve lost ten kilos!

We’ve won the lottery!

Well done!

Never mind, you’ll get over it!

Wonderful news!

What a shame!

Congratulations!

What’s that?It’s a book!

Come here!Go to the door!Sit down!

What’s that?It’s a frog!What? It’s a frog?Yes, it’s a frog!Amazing!

Come here at once!Who, me?Yes, you!What’s the matter?Be quiet!

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8. Open-endedness

Two or more possible right answers

Brainstorming:‘sun-ray’ (e.g. words with ‘l’ in them;

associations)how many things can you think of that …what can you do with a …what does a (cat, baby, teacher …) do?

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To recap:

Repetition (review) of newly-learnt language is essential for learning.

This repetition needs to be systematic and deliberate

As repetition-based exercises proceed there should be a gradual withdrawal of ‘scaffolding’ (teacher support) …

… and progression from ‘noticing’ to ‘recognition’ to ‘production’.

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In order for students to continue to attend, enjoy and progress, it is essential to make sure that repetition activities are designed to arouse and maintain interest.

Some practical principles for making repetitive exercises interesting are:

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Variety

Purposeful meaning-making

Success-orientation

Visual focus

Game-like tasks

Personalization

Entertainment

Open-ended cues