Repetition and Language Acquisition

What is repetition? Should language be memorized? Can we learn a language through mimicry of the teacher? Is repetition a useful teaching technique that leads to language acquisition? These questions always pop to our head since this is the way we were sometimes taught when we were young, when the teachers believed in the audio-lingual method. The teacher was like an orchestra leader, providing a good model for imitation and we had to repeat as accurately and as rapidly as possible. After my experience in teaching, I think that teachers can resort to repetition and adapt it to their teaching approach but only minimally.
There is more than one type of repetition- repetitions done by students which are oral imitations, and repetitions done by the teacher which intend at revisiting the things learned to ensure learning. Both types of repetition are useful to young learners for a number of reasons. First, they make newly learned things stick in the head and facilitate memorizing. Children easily forget newly learned things. Through repetition, new information will be stored in the long term memory. A word is not likely to be learned through one meeting. Several meetings ensure learning and retrieval. High frequency words are also learned through frequent repetition. Second, it's through listening and repetition that students learn the correct pronunciation. Finally, repetition of sentences gives the students a sense of confidence because they feel that they are using the language.

Although repetition is useful in the English classroom, however, as Slatterly and Willis wrote, "it doesn't necessarily mean language acquisition is taking place" (p.43). Children might repeat nursery rhymes without understanding them. They might understand the general gist but not the individual words. Children might repeat sentences learned at the classroom but may not be able to use the words learned in different contexts. They might repeat vocabulary words without remembering their meaning.

Therefore, when teaching vocabulary, teachers should be sure that students understand their meaning. (EXACTLY!) With young children this could be done through miming, gestures, movements, facial expression, flashcards, pictures, realia etc… Teachers should also be sure that students understand the new vocabulary by asking them to respond not just to repeat. She can ask them to draw or to respond physically after listening to show that they understood and not are not repeating parrotly. Using new words and phrases several times and in different ways also ensures that students understand the words. Teachers should also display pictures on the bulletin boards to support new vocabulary and link vocabulary with a topic that students already know. When the context is real, students think of the meaning and repeat not only to practice pronunciation without understanding. Speaking games are other ways to make students repeat with understanding

Repetition is necessary with young children because they easily forget newly learned things. However, repetition doesn't ensure learning and vocabulary acquisition. More attention needs to be paid by the teacher on techniques for teaching vocabulary not on parrot repetition.