We all know that repetition is key to what we do in the classroom. We instinctively repeat our instructions in hopes that everyone hears at least part of what we are telling them to do. We also repeat our targeted structures in stories, Movie Talks, Card Talk, Picture Talk, and more. In conference sessions, workshops, and webinars, you have likely been told to go slow and repeat often.
But why? Why do we repeat so much?
Paul Nation reports in his research that a person needs to come into contact with a word 40 times before it is cemented into memory. Other researchers have said 35 times or 50 times. I’ve heard the number 75 come up in conversations with colleagues. Whichever number you choose, that is a lot of repetitions to get in of a single structure. Compound that by the all the structures you hope your students acquire by the end of the year… how on earth can we do it?
Salience
Last year at the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association annual conference, Dr. Stephen Krashen was our keynote speaker. He took the time to mentor me and my partner in crime, Leslie Phillips, on this very topic: repetition of targeted structures. I left with a new understanding of how the brain acquires language.
It all has to do with salience.
Look at the image below:
Before reading any further, ask yourself these questions: What does this image mean to you? Does it cause any emotions? Does it spark a memory? Do you see all the peppers? Or just the red one?
For me, it is a glorious reminder of my favorite food to eat: anything spicy! For someone else, however, it may spark a memory of something they dislike. I am drawn to this photo due to the red pepper (by the way, there is a whole body of research on colors the human eye prefers and guess which color is numero uno? Yep! You guessed it, RED!).
I am drawn to this photo due to its salience to me. But the thing is, what is salient to me, isn’t necessarily salient to someone else. What I learned from Dr. Krashen that day was a single mention of a word may be all it takes if that word is salient to the listener.
Folks, this is why we repeat and repeat and repeat our structures. This is why we shelter our vocabulary and not our grammar. This is how our brains acquire language: structures repeated in a variety of contexts so that we hit on the ONE SALIENT MOMENT FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL STUDENT.
That is so important, I’m going to repeat it again:
This is how our brains acquire language: structures repeated in a variety of contexts so that we hit on the ONE SALIENT MOMENT FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL STUDENT.
(See what I did there? I repeated it…)
This is so important to remember. What is salient to me might mean absolutely nothing to Joe Student sitting in the back of my room. I need to provide the structures he needs to be successful in our Spanish program in a way that is salient (compelling) to HIM. That means Story Asking, Movie Talk, Picture Talk, Novels, thematic units of study (like
Mar de Plástico by Carrie Toth), music, and more.
Don’t just repeat a word or structure for the sake of repeating. Repeat your structure in a variety of compelling, salient contexts. One of those repetitions will be the one his brain has been waiting for.
