Do young EFL learners benefit from task repetition?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that task repetition can positively affect L2 oral performance. However, few studies have explored the effects of task repetition on young EFL learners’ production. Also, task repetition research has paid little attention to effects of spacing examined through longer time intervals between the two occasions of task performance. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of immediate and delayed task repetition on young learners’ oral production in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Forty-four learners aged between 10 and 12 studying at a private language institute in Tehran, Iran, were randomly assigned to one of the three groups in the study: no repetition (NR), immediate task repetition (ITR) and delayed task repetition (DTR). The participants were asked to watch a short silent movie and narrate its story. In the ITR condition, participants repeated the task immediately after their first enactment; the DTR group repeated the same task after 1 month ; and the NR group carried out the task only once. The results showed that ITR had positive impacts on all the three areas of speech production, while DTR could improve accuracy and partly fluency. Also, among the examined areas of oral language production, complexity was found to be the least affected area.