The role of task repetition in EFL contexts

Abstract

Different researchers have defended the use of tasks in language teaching because they offer learners the opportunity to enhance their linguistic abilities by interacting with others. Nonetheless, task-based language teaching has been criticized because as an approach it seemed to ignore formal aspects of language. Recently researchers have begun implementing task design variables, allowing learners in communicative language learning courses to develop meaning in their second language without disregarding form. Task repetition, the target of the present paper, is one of those variables in task design.

The goal of this paper is to show that task repetition seems to allow language learners to focus on the form of the language they are learning, thus developing their overall proficiency. The paper will present the theoretical rationale for the use of task repetition and will summarize several empirical studies that have implemented it in foreign language contexts. The studies chosen were carried out in English as a foreign language contexts, with both adult and child participants, and they show that task repetition helps the learners’ foreign language acquisition process by freeing up their attention capacities when producing language. Moreover, the paper will showcase current lines of research on task repetition such as the use of task repetition in written modalities, the simultaneous use of task repetition and online planning, and learners’ perception of task repetition.