The Use Of Repetition

As a foreign language or a second language (EFL / ESL), English requires a good language environment; that is to say, there is plenty, standard, and authentic language input. Since English at school is a required course, teachers almost contact students every day. Teacher talk should be a natural language input for students, whose quantity and quality plays a great role in students' English study.Repetition is a common phenomenon in language using and teaching. As a general discourse, repetition can be intentional or unintentional. Intentional repetition is to achieve a certain discourse purpose, while unintentional repetition may reveal the speaker's limited, cramped language ability and psychological tension. Obviously, intentional repetition is an important means of language input in English teaching.Based on the above understanding, this thesis attempts to investigate classroom discourse in part of Shanghai High School English classes, making a research on 1) the form and content of repetition in teacher talk, 2) the function of repetition in teacher talk, 3) students' responses to repetition in teacher talk.The study has found that there is still a lot of inappropriate repetition in teacher talk. To enhance and improve the environment of language input, English teachers' language ability should be improved.