The effects of repetition, comprehension checks, and gestures, on primary school children in an EFL situation

Abstract

In recent years there have been numerous articles in this journal (notably those by Wong-Fillmore 1985 and Tardif 1994) reporting on the characteristics of input with regard to children learning a second or foreign language. However, most studies to date have taken place in an ESL context, which EFL teachers consider to be quite different to their own teaching environment, and therefore not always applicable to the EFL classroom. This is a short report of a study which has investigated the listening comprehension of 60 Spanish primary school children who were in their second year of English as a foreign language. These students listened to two tales which had been simplified under two different conditions: (1) with linguistic adjustments, and (2) with linguistic and interactional adjustments (repetitions, comprehension checks, and gestures). It was found that the children were able to follow the thread of the story told by the teacher only under the second condition.