S2P - a different reason for wait-time?

​For decades, teachers have been told that students produce better answers when the teacher asks a question and then waits 3 seconds before asking a clarifying question or saying something else. The 3 seconds of "wait-time" gives learners time to process their thinking and produce a response.

But here's another application of wait-time ... I just read a recently published study that reports on the importance of having students learning new vocabulary wait 2-4 seconds before repeating a new word aloud.  And why? 
“When a person repeats a word immediately after hearing it, cognitive resources are dedicated to preparing the production of the word and, as a result, these resources cannot be used to deeply encode that word. In contrast, if production is delayed for a few seconds, this overlap is avoided, allowing deeper learning and encoding to take place."

So, I'm wondering a couple of things related to #OnwardHebrew:

• Is it possible that one of the reasons why Hebrew Through Movement (and the language learning process upon which it is based - Total Physical Response) works so well is that learners hear vocabulary and do NOT respond. Yes, it's kinesthetic (lots of credit for that!), but might this approach that gives the brain time to encode a word or command be another reason for its success? One conclusion from this study is that, "...the learning processes should focus more on listening rather than on production."  In HTM, we don't encourage any repetition of the commands and this seems to be where HTM gains its staying-power!
• In using Sound-to-Print "cueing" when working with Hebrew decoding, could asking children to wait 2-4 seconds before repeating the words or phrases, help their brains better encode the oral cueing offered to them by their teacher or tutor? This is just a minor tweak to offering cues when decoding S2P.

​I don't have answers to these two questions (nor do I know what this 2-4 second wait time would look like for the decoding process), but maybe someone would find this interesting to explore in their teaching. If you do, let us know what you discover via the #OnwardHebrew Facebook group!
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Nachama Skolnik Moskowitz

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