Choral repetition revisited

Choral repetition is one of those traditional teacher practices which we don't often stop to question and, surprisingly, there has been very little research into its usefulness. I posted about the topic in 2022 but am prompted to revisit the subject after reading a research article which you can find here When it comes to learning new vocabulary learning, their research questions were:

• Was choral repetition more effective than no choral repetition?
• Was there no difference in the relative effectiveness of choral repetition versus no choral repetition? 
• Or, in strongest contrast to common intuitions about choral repetitionbeing effective, was there ever a case in which choral repetition was less effective than no choral repetition?

Their findings in this relatively small pair of studies, one with Spanish learners, one with French learners. Their findings and pedagogical implications were summarised thus:

The findings of the studies reported here suggest that despite the popularity of choral repetition in L2 classrooms, this practice does not increase vocabulary learning (compared to the option of not asking learners to repeat words aloud) during the initial stages of vocabulary learning. Instead of focusing on requiring learners to perform repetition tasks, instructors may be better served by presenting input in a manner that is as suitable as possible for effective lexical input processing and vocabulary learning and requiring only tasks that have been found to increase L2 vocabulary (p.71).

Now, it's always worth emphasising that it's hard to draw firm conclusions from isolated studies. And in this case the words were tested pre- and post-test by translation (and only in the French test by listening to the words). There was no attempt to assess the ability to say the words out loud, so it's hard to know whether with/without choral repetition had an effect on phonological memory of the words. (Theoretically, the theory of Elaborate Processing (Craik and Lockhart, 1972) and the so-called Production Effect suggests that having to say out loud words should help produce a stronger memory trace, just as writing down something by hand rather than typing ahs been shown to aid recall.)

I have not come across any attempt to replicate this research or carry it out on a larger scale so I do not see it as very persuasive as it stands.

The rest of this post more or less duplicates what I wrote previously, but I have added a few new points.

So what is happening when we do choral repetition? 

Choral repetition can be based on flashcards, flashcards with text, text on the board, an audio text, video text or just things that you say. Students listen carefully, briefly process what they hear, repeat and get used to using their motor skills to produce different sounds, syllables and words in an unthreatening way without having to perform in front of their peers or a partner. It helps, of course, if the class knows what the material being repeated actually means (the research article referred to above makes reference to the importance of meaning). Choral repetition can be a handy controlling device for teachers who may feel insecure about class control too; when a class is all repeating in unison there isn't much opportunity to do anything else off task. (I found it a useful thing to do if I felt that engagement was waning and that the class needed 'pulling up by the bit', to use a horse-riding analogy. Teachers also get instant feedback on whether the class is having difficulty pronouncing tricky sounds.

There are ways to vary how you conduct choral repetition. Here are six:

1.  Delayed repetition (Underhill, 2005). Instead of the class repeating immediately after you, give the class a five second delay, then a clear signal (like a click of the fingers) when to repeat. This makes students rehearse the phrase in their working memory, which in turn gives the language more chance of being retained longer term. Pupils also enjoy this sort of short-term memory challenge. To add a little spice, make them wait longer - they will still be mentally rehearsing the language.

2.  Whispered repetition. This is a bit of a classic. Instead of students repeating in their normal voice, ask them to whisper the response. Alternatively, they sing the response or even (if you are brave/mad - delete as appropriate) shout their response. They could repeat to suggest a certain emotion too: anger, curiosity, pleasure, surprise.

3.  Closed eyes repetition. Closing the eyes removes distractions and allows pupils to focus even more tightly on the sounds they need to produce. It's another variation which adds a little extra interest.

4.  Back-chaining repetition. This is where you repeat a phrase or senetnce syllable by syllable, strating from the end and working backwards. So, if the sentence were Je suis allé au cinéma (I went to the cinema), you would do this:

ma....éma... inéma.... cinéma....au cinéma ... allé au cinéma... suis allé au cinéma... je suis allé au cinéma

There is something about the back-chaining which amuses pupils. It's the rapid repetition of the same sounds which can sound a little absurd.

5.  Varying the group. After whole class repetition of a phrase, do the same phrase with different grouping, e.g. row by row, pair by pair, boys and girls. This change of perspective keeps the repetition alive and the class on their toes.

6.  Changing the speed. This is a common practice to mainatin engagement. Just deliver the same words or chunks faster or more slowly. With words you could do this amusingly, syllable by syllable.

This article by Tamara Jones makes the case for choral repetition, including the point that when students are comfortable with the motor skills needed to deal with the phonology of the new language, this frees up some working memory to deal with other challenges of sentence construction (retrieving vocabulary, coping with syntax). I would add that focusing on accurate pronunciation via choral repetition not only helps with pronunciation and phonics (matching sounds to spellings), but with listening. The reason for this is that to recognise words and chunks in speech we need to have a secure memory of how words are pronounced (phonological memory).

As with all language teaching techniques and procedures, much depends on how well you carry out the task. For choral repetition to work well, in my view, you need to use it rigorously, looking out for any signs of lack of participation or effort. It would be easy for it to become a routine practice, sloppily done, with little commitment or intent from students. "Students should not repeat things passively and mechanically but actively and meaningfully, focusing on how they hear and produce sounds and how they can improve that, learning from such a repetition." (quoted from this article).  

Thus, based on Underhill’s (2019) concept of ‘smart repetition’, here are some tips to help teachers and learners make the most of listen and repeat:

My colaborator Gianfranco Conti has suggested that choral repetition be best carried out only after many examples of hearing the words or chunks in the input. For myself, I was happy to use it with beginners or near-beginners even when the words were new. back in the day I would make sure students heard the words before seeing them, but I feel less dogmatic about that now. (The idea was that seeing the spellings would lead to poor and fossilised pronunciation - I tend now towards the view that it is better to get the 'phonics' issues - sound-spelling links - sorted out from the start.)

Below are two other nice ideas that were shared with me on Facebook.

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Liz Sowter: "I used to do a game where I competed against the class. If I pointed to a picture and said the right words they all had to repeat. If I deliberately said the wrong thing they had to remain absolutely silent (not inaccurate language, but un chien when pointing to un chat etc). If there was total silence they got the point. If anyone even started to repeat it I got the point. First to 6 or first to 10, depending how much time we had. I kept it going swiftly enough to avoid recrimination against the person who made the mistake!'

I've recently been holding a 2-sided red & green card behind my back, saying a phrase and the class can only repeat when I show the green card. Great fun. Take longer and longer before turning green to keep phrase in memory! (Amanda Sayle)

And another…

We (primary) play a game we call Secret Chief. One child leaves the class to be Detective and whilst they're out the room I select who will be "Secret Chief". The Secret Chief agrees to have a secret sign/action/fidget (eg adjust glasses/scratch ear/touch their book) whilst all other children agree to sit nicely (as usually expected in our school). The Detective re-enters the room and stands facing the class so they can observe. I then start leading the class in chorale repetition but we can only move to the next piece of vocab/phrase till I see the secret sign from the Secret Chief. The kids find it hilarious that we might end up repeating the same word 10 times before we move to the next and love working as a team to keep the identity of the Secret Chief unknown. The SC and class' aim is to make it through the board of vocabulary undetected; the Detective has to work out who the SC is and gets 3 guesses to do so - they can take a guess at any time by raising their hand and we'll all stop. The children at my school love it and whilst it takes a little practise to get the game flowing in the beginning, after a while they all get the format and understand the rules. I also enjoy the personal challenge of trying not to give it away myself haha! (Em Ma CTon)

References

Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal behavior, 11, 671-684.

MacLeod C. et al (2010). The production effect: delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory and Cognition. 

Underhill, A. (2005). Sound Foundations (Second Edition). Macmillan Books for Teachers. London: Macmillan.

Wong, W and Barcroft, J. (2019). Repeat after me or not? Choral repetition and L2 vocabulary learning.

• (In book: 8th Meeting on Language Teaching - Proceedings (pp.64-73) 
• University of Quebec in Montreal.)