ERIC Number: EJ1048552
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Jan
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1362-1688
EISSN: N/A
Spacing Techniques in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: Short-Term Gains vs. Long-Term Memory
Schuetze, Ulf
Language Teaching Research, v19 n1 p28-42 Jan 2015
This article reports the results of two experiments using the spacing technique (Leitner, 1972; Landauer & Bjork, 1978) in second language vocabulary acquisition. In the past, studies in this area have produced mixed results attempting to differentiate between massed, uniform and expanded intervals of spacing (Balota, Duchek, & Logan, 2007). A particular problem has been the point of testing that did not draw a clear line between short-term gains and long-term retention (Roediger & Karpicke, 2010). The experiments presented in this article addressed this issue. In the first experiment, 76 university students enrolled in a Beginning German class learned 24 content and 15 function words during a practice phase with a "one plus three" design followed by three delayed post-tests. Results showed that in regards to short-term gains, the expanded group obtained higher mean scores than the uniform group, whereas in the long-term test it was the other way round. The second experiment used the same methodology with one exception: the practice phase was increased to a "one plus four" design. Results confirmed those of the first experiment; in addition it was shown that function words are particularly difficult to recall for students using the expanded interval.
Descriptors: Second Language Learning, German, Second Language Instruction, Introductory Courses, Retention (Psychology), Scores, Vocabulary Development, Teaching Methods, Language Tests, Multivariate Analysis, Memory, Foreign Countries, Undergraduate Students, Questionnaires
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada (Victoria)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A