elizabeth gatbonton concordia university

Elizabeth GatbontonConcordia University

Presented at RASCALS, 2014

Role of repetition and frequency in language learning

What every CEGEP teacher should know about its theory and practice

Email: [email protected]

What every CEGEP teacher knows about the role of repetition in language learning

•Repetition is important in language learning.•Language is a set of skills. •Language users must have automatic control of speech

-easily retrieved from memory, -processed quickly, and _produced without hesitations and

unnecessary pauses.•Automatization can be attained only through repetition

•Automatic means that utterances are:

What every CEGEP teacher should know about the theory of repetition in SLA.

Repetition is central in a recent theory about what drives second language acquisition (SLA):

This theory suggests:•exposure to comprehensible input Krashen 1993

•access to opportunity to produce output through interaction Long, 1997; Swain, 1998; 2005

Frequency theory Ellis, 2002, Collins & Ellis 2009

are not what promotes acquisition.

What every CEGEP teacher should know about the theoryof repetition in SLA

•frequent exposure to comprehensible input Krashen 1993

•frequent access to opportunity to produce output through interaction Long, 1997; Swain, 1998; 2005

•have repeated opportunities to be confronted with and successfully deal with language that is slightly above one’s level of competence

•have repeated opportunities to make hypothesis about how things work and have these hypothesis confirmed or disconfirmed while using language.

What promotes acquisition:

Let’s illustrate how this works:

Let’s illustrate how this works: A lesson in Inuttitut

Ben is asking a question

SuKattaven? ‘ What do you do?

One of them is a teacher. The other is a policeman?

Peter: Pulesiuvunga.

Tim; lliniatitsiuvunga.

To illustrate how it works

Pulesi

ilinniatitsiji

Pulesiuvungavunga.u

vungau

Ilinniatitsiuvunga

To illustrate how it works: A lesson in Inuttitut

Pulesi

ilinniatitsiji

Pulesiuvungavunga.u

vungau

Ilinniatitsiuvunga

Selma

Paitsik

Paitsiji u vunga. Paitsiuvunga

Let’s test your knowledge

Can you remember?

Pulesik

Occupations

Paitsijik

Ilinniatitsijik

SuKattaven?

Ilinniatitsijiuvunga

Paitsijiuvunga

Pulesiuvunga

Analysis:

Why are you having difficulty with these utterances?

between

1. Not enough experience with them to allow you to make a stable mapping:

Their form their meaning

2. Exposure too short to allow you to abstract the distributional probabilities of this form-meaning mapping.

3. Possible to achieve only through piecemeal learning of thousands of examples of this form meaning-mapping.

Analysis:

With frequent exposure to this mapping

1. You will begin to notice:

Pules iu vungaPaitsi U vungaIlliniatisiji U vunga

1. You will begin to notice:

Inuttitut root words in citation forms always end in k but k drops when post base is attached. That vunga means I, and u is a bridging sound. That there is no be equivalent, that vunga becomes ven when you ask questions etc. a

Summary:

Repeated exposure to the same utterance is important

Each repetition increases the frequency of input and experience with these utterances.

Because every exposure to and experience with the same utterance help learners abstract general regularities about these utterances

What every CEGEP teacher should know about the practice of repetition . . .

Research and anecdotal findings about what goes on in many language classrooms today.

Whether they are meaning-based : Collins, Trofimovich, White, Cardoso, Horst, 2009), Lyster, 1994; Swain 1988, White, Collins, Trofimovich, Cardoso, & Horst, 2007) Or focused on grammar instruction. Lightbown, Halter, Meara, 1998; Duff, et al.

Suggest that we cannot assume:

That structures that students need to know will occur naturally in the classroom

that if they occur, that they will be repeated enough to ensure acquisition.

What every CEGEP teacher should also be aware of about repetition . . .•General findings of classroom corpus research on:

1. Teacher talk (Classroom corpus): Collins et al (2009). White et al, 2007

Of commonly targeted but “late acquired” structures: 3rd person singular verbs, simple past verbs (e.g.,regular verbs), certain pronouns (e.g., his/his hers)

2. Teacher talk during actual language instruction (Lightbown et al 2009, Duff & Polio, 2009),

Multiple repetitions of each exemplar-

Exemplars of targeted language structures

Low frequency occurrence: Few:

Rare:

What every CEGEP teacher probably does not know or is not aware of . . .

3. In vocabulary learning (Horst, 2010; Meara, Lightbown et al, Meara, et al)

•Most words used come from Nation’s first 1,000- 3,000 word lists

•Very few repeated words

•Very few rare words

•Highest multiple repetition, if it occurs, is 2-3 at most.

•Classrooms may be filled with student-teacher talk while performing tasks, and even explicit language instruction.

However,

What every CEGEP teacher should also be aware of about repetition . . .

According to research on vocabulary learning:Minimum number of repetitions required for meaning ofvocabulary items to be recognized and retained (e.g.,

Horst,Cobb, & Meara, 1998; Nation, 2001)

•they hear it at most 2 or 3 exemplars or tokens

•8 times at least

Conclusion:•learners are not hearing many exemplars of targeted structures in the classroom

So why are we not doing more repetitions?

•Repetitions is boring

•Pattern practice does not work.

Widely held beliefs about repetition that prevent us from doing so

•Repetition is incompatible with communicationg

But hark. The news is not all gloom and doom.

*Grammar instruction classroom

•We are now finding ways to increase input and output frequency in:

•Task based classrooms

Gatbonton & Iwashita (2011)

•Developed a task that could elicit many examples of regular and irregular past tense verbs.

•We tested whether the increase in the frequency occurrence of these verbs led to accuracy in past tense morphology.

The Study-in brief

•Task – ACCESS Alibi Game:•Used it teaching 33 adult Chinese learners of English during the first 4 hours of a 24-hour course in English.

•Calculated how many propositions* containing past tense verbs were used from hour 1 to hour 4 of the lesson, how many of these were repeated and how many times each.•Examined whether there was an association between an increase in frequency of use of these utterances with an increase in accuracy gains with the past tense from hour 1 to hour 4.

*word or group of words that contained a compete thuught

ResultsFirst, some stats on the speech corpus:

N=26*Total # of propositions used over 3 hours 6,915

Total # of past events propositions(all utterances used in describing past events: full propositions and short answers)

5,345(77%)

Total number of utterances containing past tense verbs (full)

3,638(59%)

Total # of verb types used 119

*Data of 4 were excluded for incomplete data sets

Tokens of 10 Frequently used verbsWent 786Watched 334took 266had 229was 211did 209got 132bought 123washed 93waited 69

Total: 2,452 tokens

Mean: 245Range: 69-786

So, massive amount of repetition

Types of repeated utterances (Samples only)

Went I/we went home.I/we went to bed.I/we went to a/the PL (restaurant, park, cinema, the movie, library)I/we went to PL (Ottawa, church, school)I /we went to VP (shop, ski)

took I took the bus, metroI took a shower, bathIt took (us/them) TIME (hours, mins)

watch I /we watched tv.I/we watched the EVENT (news, movie, program)

washed He washed the dishes

Increase in the use of utterances with Went”

Task 1 (FSW)

Task 2 (PD)

Task 3 (ALIB)

02468

101214

UseAccuracy

Increase in the accuracy of utterances with “Went”

Task 1 (FSW)

Task 2 (PD)

Task 3 (ALIB)

02468

101214

UseAccuracy

Increase in use and accuracy of “Went”

Task 1 (FSW)

Task 2 (PD)

Task 3 (ALIB)

02468

101214

UseAccuracy

‘’Take home message:

•Repetition is essential in language learning•Without it language cannot be fully learned.

•Whatever the reasons, we do not promote repetition in our classrooms to a high enough level to trigger acquisition

•But we can develop ways to do so

•We will discuss these ways in the workshop following

‘Thank you for listening !!!!

[email protected]

Rascals workshopPart 2

Elizabeth GatbontonConcordia University

30

Grammar teaching

•Presentation-Elicit exemplars.-Analyze exemplars to show structure.-Abstract the rule and state it.

•Practice rule•Produce: Apply rule in context

•Presentation-State the rule.-Give exemplars to illustrate rule-Check if studentsUnderstood rule

Deductive InductiveStages in the lesson: Some steps similar in both types

•Practice rule•Produce: Apply rule in context

Repetition and frequency

Promoting repetition in a traditional teaching approach

Pattern practice

Substitution drills

Expansion drills

Transformation drills

Repeat after mePresentation

Production

Practice

Repetition occurs in the Practice component of a PPP lesson, whether it is inductive or deductive

Repetition and frequencyA traditional inductive grammar lesson: Sample

1. Presentation

He saw film.a. Present exemplars (Exemplars not on same theme)

He bought a house.b. Analyze the exemplars

•Read each sentence. Underline the verb in each. •Underline the subject in each.

He was killed in the warHis cousin took the car The car was sold.

The tree was cut.

•Is the subject the doer of the action in sentences in Column A? What about in Column 2? Is the subject the doer of the action in sentences ETC…

Repetition and frequencyA traditional inductive grammar lesson

Is there a difference between the form of the verb in the sentences in Column 1 and those in Column 2?

c. Analyze the exemplars (continued).

What is the form of the verb in the sentences in Column 2?

d. Abstract the rule:How is the passive verb formed?.Is the subject the doer in a passive sentence?

Et cetera……..

Etc……


2. Practice•Indicate whether sentence is passive or active

Phil ___ wounded in the war. He ___ shot in his left left.He ____ left all alone in the field.He died. He ___ killed by neglect.

•What is the passive form of these verbs?

•Transform these active verbs into passive verbs.•Cloze exercise.


3. ProduceComplete the following sentences using a passive verb

•The bag was ___________________________

•The woman ______________________

•Her bag __________________________by a thief.•The thief ____________________by the police.

Observation: There are few exemplars used to illustrate the grammatical point and multiple repetition of the same utterances is rared.


Today’s inductive grammar lesson: A sample

1. Present the exemplars:a. Role play the following mugging scene . Victim = woman

-mugged, pushed, robbed. Object stolen: bag. Thief:grabs bag, pushes woman, runs, bumps into policeman.

b. Using the role play elicit the exemplars:Describe what the thief did. What happened to the woman. What happened to the thief.Write down the answers. Separate active sentences from passive as they are given


Today’s inductive grammar lesson: A sample

c. Call the students’ attention to the exemplarsThe thief saw a woman.

He tried to ran away.He bumped into a policeman.

The woman was mugged.

The policeman arrested him.

He grabbed her bag.He pushed her down.

She was pushed.She was robbed.Her bag was stolen.The thief was arrested.The bag was returned to the woman.


Today’s inductive grammar teaching lesson: A sample

c. Analyze the exemplarsi. Lead students to read each sentence

ii. Have them notice the difference in meaning between the sentences in Column 1 and

those in Column 2.iii. Have them notice the difference between the forms of the active verbs and that of the passive verb.

q. Abstract the rulesi. Help students abstract the rules.


Today’s inductive grammar teaching lesson: A Sample

c. Practicei. Indicate whether the sentence is passive or not

It was already reported.

The police arrested the thief.The bag was returned to the woman

Peter called the newspaper to report the mugging.

The headline read: Woman was mugged.Her bag was stolen.A thief grabbed her bag.



c. Practice: continuedComplete this cloze:

I ____ the story of the woman who ___ ____the other day. Her bag ___ ____by a thief. She was waiting for a bus when the thief _____ her bag. The woman ______. Her shout ___ _____by a policeman nearby. He ______ the thief the next day. He ___ him mugging another person. The woman’s bag ___ _____the next day. Someone ___it into the bushes. The thief ___ ____ in prison.



3. Produce

b. Record your story as a news cast and read it in class

a. Write the story as though it happened to you or to someone you know. Adjust the details to fit the situation


How was the repetition accomplished in that lesson?

1. Use a role play to elicit the exemplars. Use extension activity in the production exercise

3. Make sure the same set of utterances are used in your practice and Production exercises (Same theme

different setting

2. Elicit the exemplars so that a coherent story is told.Ask your eliciting questions so that the answers illustrate the form you want to focus upon. Ensure that you have enough exemplars to illustrate your point.

Promoting repetition in a reading to grammar lesson

Not always done

Usual approach:

*move from reading to oral fluency

*move from reading to vocabulary development

•Easy to move from reading to grammar if text is structure focused

Example: Clear grammatical structure in text: The Sonar Cane:The sonar cane looks a bit like a traditional white cane but has a semicircular black box on two wheels attached to its bottom end. As a person pushes the cane along, it transmits ultrasonic pulses that bounce off obstacles up to six feet ahead and reflect back to sensors at the base of the case. The cane then automatically turns its wheels to steer around the obstacle. The person feels the movement and follows along, also sidestepping the object. "It's With the price of guide dogs running into the tens of thousand of dollars, the white cane is still the most commonly used aid for the visually impaired. The venerable tool is the focus of research of Johann Borenstein and Iwan Ulrich, mechanical engineers at the University of Michigan. They have developed a cane that uses sonar to steer the cane's user around obstacles.

Obvious grammatical point• The sonar cane takes the place of guide dogs.

• It looks like a traditional white cane.

• It weighs eight pounds.

• It has a semicircular box on two wheels attached to its bottom end.

• It also has a small on board computer and an array of ultrasonic sensors.

MEDICINE - Pain reliever, fever reducer, anti-inflammatory, preventive medicine for heart attack and stroke -- the humble aspirin looks increasingly like a miracle drug. Last March two studies confirmed that it might also help prevent the growth of polyps associated with colon cancer. The first study was conducted from1999 to 2003 at the Digestive and Nutrition Division of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under the direction of Dr Robert Sandler, Professor of Medicine in that institution.

In this study 635 patients between 30 and 80 years old, with a history of colon or rectal cancer were the participants. The researchers first screened the participants to make sure it was safe for them to take the aspirin daily, and monitored them for their motivation and adherence to the dosing schedule. Following the initial three-month evaluation period, 635 patients were randomly assigned to either the aspirin or placebo group.

What happens if no particular struture leaps out?

The patients remained under the care of their regular physicians, and the investigators monitored the findings of their colonoscopies or sigmoidoscopies. These examinations were periodically conducted during routine follow-up care for colon cancer patients. Researchers measured the proportion of patients in each group who developed polyps, the size and extent of the polyps and how long it took for the polyps to first appear.

Statistics revealed that only 17 percent of patients in the aspirin group had developed one or more adenomatous polyps compared to 27 percent of those in the placebo group. The aspirin also decreased the number of adenomas each patient developed and prolonged the time to their initial appearance. These findings held true even after controlling for age, sex, cancer stage, the number of colonoscopies and the time to the initial colonoscopy.

When no particular linguistic structure leaps out, use comprehension check questions to elicit the structures: E.g., past verbs

Why does the author say that aspirin looks increasingly a miracle drug?What else does the article say that aspirin might be able to do in addition to

the above?How many studies were conducted to determine this effectHow many people participated in the first study?What did these people do during the first study?How did the researchers measure the effects of aspirin?What were the result of the first study?Were the results of the second study similar?How many participated in the second study?What were the results?

Another set of comprehension check questions for the same text, bringing out different target structure: Passive construction.

What is the article about? Why is aspirin considered by the author to be a miracle drug? What new effect was aspirin found to have? On what basis was aspirin determined to have this effect? How many studies were conducted on the effects of aspirin? Who conducted the first study? How many participants were asked to participate? How were the participants chosen? What was the experimental group instructed to do? What was the Placebo group instructed to do? How was the effect of aspirin measured in these patients? What were the result of the first study.

Ask the class questions to elicit the target structures

How many studies were conducted on the effects of aspirin?Who conducted the first study?How many participants were asked to participate?How were the participants chosen?What was the experimental group instructed to do?What was the Placebo group instructed to do? How was the effect of aspirin measured in these patients? What were the result of the first study.

…

Have the leaners classify the sentences and put those that have the same structures together.

Aspirin was considered by the author to be a miracle drug. Aspirin wasfound to have ___ effect Aspirin was determined to have this effect by…

Conitinue: Have learners pair up tor answer the rest:

Promoting repetition in a Communicative Language teaching CLT) approach- Late Period

CommunicationRole plays, problem solving puzzles

Form-focused teaching: grammar, practice

Form focused teaching –grammar, practice

Drills

CommunicationRole plays, problem solving puzzles

repeti

tion

Two ways

Task-based language teaching (TBLT)

Parts of a TBLT lesson

Pre-task

Find with the topic

Find out if learners have language needed to do task

Do enabling tasks: Teach utterances they need so they can do tasks.

Main task: (eg..Role play, presentation, consensus building task, picture description reading, etc

Post task: wrap up, extension, grammar improvement

Repetition and frequencyDifferent strategies in promoting repetition in TBLT

Repeat the same task.

1. Pre- task planning strategy:

2. Task repetition strategy

Have a different audience each time

Add a planning component to the Pre-task.

Reduce the time it takes each time

Have students plan what they will do in the main task

Have them think of the sentences they need to use.


Different strategies in promoting repetition in TBLT

Do not add to the task but change the design of the task so that repetition becomes the main means of attaining the task goal. Inherent repetition

Include enabling tasks in the pre-task section. Enabling tasks are mini tasks designed to focus on the target structure and do not have a real world goal.

2. Enabling strategy:

3. ACCESS strategy (creative automatization-Gatbonton & Segalowitz, 2005)



Start with a pair: The pair does the task

3. Each group of four report their information to the class.

2. Pair form a larger group: Each set of pairs exchange information

5. The pyramid strategy

3. Every one works together to form a consensue



a. Each student finds out from classmates same set of information needed to create a profile of the group

c. The group discuss the common characteristics of thegroup.

b. Every one reports information gathered to the group

6. The class profile strategy

The ACCESS* strategy

*Acquisition in Communicative Contexts of Essential Speech Sequences

Gatbonton & Segalowtiz, 1988; 2005

ACCESS

•Interactive Involve at least 2 participants.

•Goal-oriented interaction designed to achieve a goal or outcome

•Inherently Repetition part of task design.Repetitive Crucial in achieving goal

•Genuinely Learners themselves decide what to say.communicative: Info given by one helps both attain goal.

Summary: All tasks have to be:

•Formulaic Designed to elicit useful, reusable utterances.

TBLT

feat

ures

ACCESS

•Interactive Involve at least 2 participants.

•Goal-oriented interaction designed to achieve a goal or outcome

Summary: All tasks have to be:

•Inherently Repetition part of task design.Repetitive Crucial in achieving goal

•Genuinely Genuinel Learners themselves decide what to say.communicative: Info given by one helps both attain goal.

•Formulaic Designed to elicit useful, reusable utterances.

TBLT

feat

ures

ACCE

SS fe

atur

es

ACCESS StrategyImproving TBLT’s ability to improve accuracy:

Tasks are designed according to three criteria

ACCESS

1. Have to be genuinely communicative

2. Have to be inherently repetitive

•Interactive: Requires at least 2 people to do the task

•Student centered: Task goal attained only if Ss express own intentions, which remain unknown until expressed.•Info-gap driven: Exchange of new info leads to the attainment of task goal.

•Task goal inherent to task. Goal cannot be attained unless through repetititive acts.

•Each S asks same questions to all, gives same info to many. Info repeated in various contexts

Today’s LessonImproving TBLT’s ability to improve accuracy:

With special characteristics: Tasks have to be designed

ACCESS

3. Have to promote a critical mass of Formulaic utterances

•Focus utterances that have clear pragmatic functions (are useful in real-world communication)

•have high re-use potential, either verbatim or with only slight modifications.

•Tasks must create a critical mass of these utterances, with many tokens each.

62

Repetition is promoted through tasks designed according to three criteria

Genuinely communicativeNew info is exchangeGenuine need for info

FormulaicProduce mass of reusable sentences

Inherently repetitive

Repetition is main means of reaching task goal.

Automatiza

tion

Creative

Contexts EssentialSpeechSequences

63

ACCESS strategy

64

Have Ss work in small groups.

Have each group decide which accident triggered the other accidents.

Have each group report what they came up with to the class.

Have the class arrive at a concensus on one order of events.(No correct answer)

Full description of task is found in Gatbonton, E (1994) Bridge to Fluency. Speaking 1. Pp.82-104. Prentice Hall, Canada & Editions du Renouveau Pedagogique Inc. (ERPI) Quebec.

The Alibi Game

•Stage 1: Planning: Ss work in pairs to create an alibi.

Original Alibi Game*.

•Stage 2: Interrogation: Pairs interrogated separately by the class

ACCESS-refitted Alibi Game (AAG)**

•Find Someone Who (FSW) Find out who did certain activities the weekend before:

•Picture Story: Describe a couple’s weekend based on pictures. Compare their weekend to the couple’s:

ALIBI Planning (AP) Work in pairs to create your alibi:

•Lawyer Consultation (LC): Have your Alibi story tested by a “lawyer”.

Pre-Task 1

Main Task

Pre-Task 2

Wrap up

*Lee (1965)**Gatbonton (2004)

Ensu

re u

ttera

nce

repe

titio

n pe

r sta

ge

The Alibi Game TaskUsed in the Course: (Week 1)

Stage 1: Alibi Planning (FSW, PD, and Alibi planning proper): was completed in 2 hours in Day 1 and hour 1 in Day 2.

Stage 2: Alibi Interrogation began on second hour of Day 2 and was completed on Day 4.

We will report only the Stage 1 (Alibi planning) data.

The Alibi Game

•Stage 1: Planning: Ss work in pairs to create an alibi.

Original Alibi Game*.

•Stage 2: Interrogation: Pairs interrogated separately by the class

ACCESS-refitted Alibi Game (AAG)**

•Find Someone Who (FSW) Find out who did certain activities the weekend before:

•Picture Story: Describe a couple’s weekend based on pictures. Compare their weekend to the couple’s:

ALIBI Planning (AP) Work in pairs to create your alibi:

•Lawyer Consultation (LC): Have your Alibi story tested by a “lawyer”.

Pre-Task 1

Main Task

Pre-Task 2

Wrap up

*Lee (1965)**Gatbonton (2004)

Ensu

re u

ttera

nce

repe

titio

n pe

r sta

ge

Find Someone Who…

1. Learners given a set of questions. They survey the class and find answers to questions. If someone answers “yes”, they have to probe the question further. If someone says “no”, they move on.

2. Questions to find out if Ss did specific activities during the previous weekend. Examples •Did you go out of town? •Did you call your parents?

•Did you help someone?

PICTURE DESCRIPTION TASKSs build a story about a couple’s weekend based on pictures. Talk about when they did things, for how long, and why (if relevant)

How do you think these people are related to one another?

Gatbonton, E. (2004) Bridge to Fluency, Speaking 1. Prentice Hall, Canada

Who is the grandfather? How is he related to Mary?

Sam Mary

John

MelyJenny

Bobby

Who do you think Jenny is? How is he related to Bobby?

Pre-taskWork in groups of 3

and answer these questions?

Creative Automatization(Role Play: Pretend to be a Family)

______________ Family _____________ Family

1. You will be divided into two groups. In your group, pretend that you are all members of the same family. Choose a name for your family.

2. Write the names of group members.

3. Figure out how you are related to one another.

Main Task: Part 1

+

+

+

Use this family tree to record your relationship.Main Task: Part 2

Creative Automatization Phase(Find out about the other family).

1. Interview one member from the other group and figure out how they are related to one another.

2. Draw a family tree of on your classmate’s pretend family.

3. Show him your family tree and decide how your two families are the same or different.

Main Task: Part 3

Work with your partner. Figure out who is related to whom?

Fluency and accuracy exerciseConsolidation Phase: 1

Focus on the language

2. What common meaning is expressed by all these sentences?

Sam Smith is the husband or Mary Warren Smith

Mary is Sam’s wife.

Joseph Warren is the brother of Mary Warren Smith

Dick is Lynn’s husband.

Mely Jones is a daughter of John and Elly

Tommy is Mely’s brother.

Lynn Smith is the sister of Elly John is Lynn’s brother in law.

1. Read these sentences? Where did you first hear them used?

3. What do all the sentences in Column 1 have in common?4. What do all the sentences in Column 2 have in common?

Consolidation Phase 2

Consolidation Phase 1: Focus on the language (continued(

4. All these sentences express possession?

Sam Smith is the husband or Mary Warren Smith.

Mary is Sam’s wife.

Joseph Warren is the brother of Mary Warren Smith.

Dick is Lynn’s husband.

Mely Jones is a daughter of John and Elly.

Tommy is Mely’s brother.

Lynn Smith is the sister of Elly. John is Lynn’s brother in law.

5. What are the ways that we can express possession in English?

6. Does your language have different ways of expressing possession?

Consolidation Phase (cont’d)

Figure out how the two people in each picture are related.

elizabeth gatbonton concordia university

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