As teachers, we are trained to focus on activities that are communicative and task-based. Grammar practice, particularly at the sentence level, often brings associations of rote drills and repetition. However, Zoltan Dornyei (2009) points out that communicative language teaching is based on learning by doing and does not look at how people actually learn. Some second language researchers have turned to cognitive science to look at what is happening in the adult brain as we learn, and findings related to memory and skill acquisition have important implications for how we practice the skills.
This article explains the value of repetition in the grammar class.
For a long time, we were taught that repetition was a bad word. This goes back to the audio-lingual era of drill and kill. But research from cognitive science tells us that repetition has value.
First, brain scans show that repetition causes the brain to physically change. New connections are formed between neurons (think of neurons as information messengers). And the connections between neurons are thicker, stronger, and more hard-wired.
This helps students retain and solidify what they have learned. Without a lot of repetition or review, students are less likely to recall what they have learned.
The trick is to make repetition interesting. I’m sure you know all these techniques for repetition:
role play
drama techniques
story-telling
pairworks
strip stories
songs/chants
Let me show you another technique to make repetition interesting: 4/3/2. It works well for the re-telling of a story or an event. In this exercise from the new edition of the Fundamentals of English Grammar, there are two fables. Half the class has story A and half the class has story B.
Give students time to learn their story well enough to retell it. Partner A then tells Partner B the story in 4 minutes. Next, Partner A tells another student the same story in 3 minutes. Finally, Partner A has 2 minutes to tell a final person.
Often during the first telling, students voices are very low and the language is halting. The second time it’s better, but by the third time, the class can become very animated. It’s a wonderful way to work in repetition and encourage fluency at the same time.
References:
Nation, I.S.P & Jonathan Newton. 2008. Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. New York: Routhledge.
Stacy Hagen is a teacher, a teacher trainer, and the co-author of the best-selling Azar-Hagen Grammar Series. The most recent edition of Fundamentals of English Grammar is now available. pearsoneltusa.com/azar
