Implications of Lexical Repetition Patterns for Language Teaching

Abstract

Lexical repetition is a type of cohesive device in the cohesion system of Systemic Functional Linguistics. The relationship between a repetition item and its antecedent is textual rather than structural. The lexical repetition pattern proposed by Halliday & Hasan (1976) and that by Hoey (1991) can give us many implications for language teaching. Taking vocabulary and reading teaching as examples, this paper discussed the use of lexical repetition patterns in language teaching, finding that it is instructive to apply the lexical repetition patterns in the selection of new words in vocabulary teaching and in the summarization and comprehension of text in reading teaching.