EXPLORING THE ROLE OF TASK REPETITION IN IMPROVING ORAL FLUENCY AND GRAMMATICAL ACCURACY OF EFL LEARNERS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37547/Keywords:
cognitive effort, task repetition, attentional focus, picture-based storytelling, statistical significance, error reductionAbstract
This study investigated the effects of task repetition on the oral performance of 40 Chinese children learning English as a foreign language, focusing on syntactic complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Participants, aged 11–12, completed a picture-based storytelling task adapted from the Cambridge A2 Flyers test on three occasions. Performances were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using measures of syntactic complexity, errors, weighted clause ratio, and indices of repair and breakdown fluency. Non-parametric analyses, including Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests and Spearman correlations, were conducted due to non-normal distributions. Results indicated that repeated task engagement significantly enhanced accuracy and fluency, with reductions in errors, filled pauses, false starts, repetitions, and self-corrections. No significant changes were observed in syntactic complexity. Findings suggest that task repetition allows learners to allocate attentional resources more effectively, facilitating the integration of linguistic knowledge into real-time communication. The study underscores the pedagogical value of incorporating repeated communicative tasks to support oral proficiency development in second language learning contexts.
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