The term “practice” has not been popular in language classrooms since behaviourism went out of fashion. In this paper, however, I examined learners’ feedback on task repetition in order to promote the idea as an aid while learning to communicate in another language. Sixty Japanese students of English reflected on their classroom practice of oral interaction and produced focused essays on it. In the subsequent main study, to investigate further one of the most common themes identified in the students’ essays, task repetition, I interviewed three students and asked them what they thought of the iterative, interactive tasks I regularly employed in class. Their interview data provided support for repeated practice with more enjoyment, higher involvement, higher self-esteem, and lower anxiety. Repeated practice was supported not just by learning gains, as past research had demonstrated, but also by affective gains as this group of learners made a case for it.
「練習」は行動主義の衰退に伴って語学の授業では人気を失ってしまったようだが、学習者は繰り返すことをどのように考えているだろうか。本論では、まず60人の学習者にオーラル・コミュニケーションの授業で行う「繰り返し練習」について意見を求め、その後3人にインタビューを行った。学習者は、繰り返して練習することの楽しさ、参加度・自尊心の向上、逆に不安感の軽減などを挙げ、気持ちの面でも繰り返しが効果を持つことを語った。
