The effect of task repetition on Colombian EFL students’ accuracy and fluency

Identical task repetition has been claimed to foster more complex, fluent and accurate spoken performance given the fact that the cognitive work used to internalize, organize and verbalize information remains accessible for the learner when a task is repeated, and therefore, capacity for new cognitive processes or attentional resources is freed (Bygate, 1999b, 2001; Skehan 1996, 1998). Nevertheless, it has also been relevant to identify how certain repetition features, namely procedural and content, favor oral performance. This study delves into this matter through a quasi-experimental mixed design, which compares the effectiveness of both conditions on 44 Colombian EFL learners’ global and simple past accuracy and fluency. Findings revealed no significant improvements in the global measures studied. As for the simple past, oral performance benefited overtime, however, the repetition groups did not significantly outperform the control one. The absence of significance might be due to the limited amount of repetition provided, which under skill acquisition postulates needed to be richer as to promote better oral performance than regular practice, especially at the A1 proficiency level from this sample