چکیده:
This quasi-experimental study aimed to investigate the effect of task repetition under four conditions on the three dimensions of oral production (accuracy, complexity and fluency) and grammatical knowledge gain of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). 40 young learners of English as a Foreign Language in four classes were randomly assigned into one of the following groups: repetition in three successive sessions during a week, repetition once a week over three weeks, repetition with one week interval in between over five weeks, and repetition with two weeks interval in between over seven weeks. A Grammatical Judgment Test (GJT) including the prepositions of movement as the target structure was designed to measure learners’ grammatical knowledge both before and after the study. Also, tasks were developed for measuring oral performance of the participants. The findings indicated significant differences in the performance of the groups from pre-test to post-test in terms of accuracy (ratio of error-free clauses) and complexity (syntactic and lexical) dimensions of oral production as well as gains in grammatical knowledge; they however failed to show significant effects for fluency development across distinct time intervals. The paper discusses further findings and implications.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The findings indicated significant differences in the performance of the groups from pre-test to post-test in terms of accuracy (ratio of error-free clauses) and complexity (syntactic and lexical) dimensions of oral production as well as gains in grammatical knowledge; they however failed to show significant effects for fluency development across distinct time intervals.
Considering the widespread recommendations of language teaching scholars on the application of task and its repetition as the main part of teaching plans to improve the process and product of teaching and learning, this study aimed to investigate the effect of different time conditions – with no interval between tasks, repeated on the same week, and with one- week and two-week intervals - on complexity, accuracy and fluency of EFL learners‟ oral performance in an Iranian context, where there is little published research on the topic.
Fukuta‟s (2016) study on learners‟ attention orientation in second language production by repeating two tasks with different time intervals reported improved accuracy and lexical variety, but no significant change in complexity and fluency.
3. Procedure This study was of quasi-experimental nature, with the classes randomly assigned into one of the groups with repetition in three successive sessions, repetition once a week, repetition with one week and two-weeks interval in between time conditions aiming to investigate the effects of task repetition under four time conditions on the three dimensions of oral production (accuracy, complexity and fluency) and grammatical knowledge gain of learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL).