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MAKING REPETITION INTERESTING

MAKING REPETITION INTERESTING. Penny Ur 2006. Repetition as a component of language learning. I would argue that there are three major channels of learning in the FL classroom: Explicit consciousness-raising (explaining, talking ‘about’ the language)

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MAKING REPETITION INTERESTING

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  1. MAKING REPETITION INTERESTING Penny Ur 2006

  2. Repetition as a component of language learning • I would argue that there are three major channels of learning in the FL classroom: • Explicit consciousness-raising (explaining, talking ‘about’ the language) • Communication (using the language purposefully to convey or receive meanings) • Practice (focusing on repetition of target items)

  3. 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

  4. Effective repetition through practice • Quantity • Pre-learning • Success-orientation • Teacher assistance • Heterogeneity • Interest

  5. 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.

  6. 1. The stages of learning new language items

  7. 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).

  8. 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:

  9. The learner can both recognize and produce it on his / her own The learner can recognize it on his/her own, but can produce only if helped The learner can recognize it only if helped, can’t produce The learner perceives and ‘notices’ the new item, with help

  10. 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?

  11. 2. The need for repetition

  12. 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).

  13. 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.

  14. 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

  15. 2. Recognition • matching • true/false • classifying • multiple choice • drawing • ‘bingo’

  16. 3. ‘Scaffolded’ Production • recitations • dialogues learnt by heart • (prepared) dictation • games based on set basic patterns • answering (lower-level) questions

  17. 4. Independent Production • (unprepared) dictation • response to a picture • answering (higher-level) questions • discussion • free writing

  18. 3. The problem of interest

  19. 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)

  20. 1. Variety • Matching (recognition) • 1. Format

  21. Matching2. Content 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! happy a clock sad a cat  Can I … sit down! What’s the … understand! I don’t … help you? Please … matter?

  22. an ancient an aged an antique an old a mature house soldier student book dolphin woman

  23. Different ways we can vary the content of matching exercises:

  24. 2. Purposeful meaning-making • Information-gap exercises • Picture dictations • Guessing • Filling in information on a grid • Combining arrangement

  25. Combining arrangement Student A Student B 1) 2) 3) 4) 1) 2) 3) 4)

  26. 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’)

  27. Find at least three things to put in each column

  28. 4. Visual Focus • picture-based activities • adding graphic components: • joining-with-a-line • filling-in • circling • changing

  29. Joe Mitch Jackie Sid Chuck Dan 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.

  30. 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)

  31. 6. Personalization • Preferences • Ideas • Experiences • Opinions • Feelings • Ambitions

  32. 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._________

  33. 7. Entertainment • songs • video • stories • plays • humour • drama

  34. What’s that? • It’s a frog! • What? It’s a frog? • Yes, it’s a frog! • Amazing! What’s that? It’s a book! • Come here at once! • Who, me? • Yes, you! • What’s the matter? • Be quiet! Come here! Go to the door! Sit down!

  35. 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?

  36. 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’.

  37. 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:

  38. Variety • Purposeful meaning-making • Success-orientation • Visual focus • Game-like tasks • Personalization • Entertainment • Open-ended cues

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