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ERIC Number: EJ1221509
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-May
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0272-2631
EISSN: N/A
Effects of Massing and Spacing on the Learning of Semantically Related and Unrelated Words
Nakata, Tatsuya; Suzuki, Yuichi
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, v41 n2 p287-311 May 2019
Although researchers argue that studying semantically related words simultaneously (semantic clustering) inhibits vocabulary acquisition, recent studies have yielded inconsistent results. This study examined the effects of semantic clustering while addressing the limitations of previous studies (e.g., confounding of semantic relatedness with other lexical variables). Furthermore, the study investigated the effects of spacing because spacing might facilitate the learning of semantically related items by alleviating interference. In this study, 133 Japanese university students studied 48 English-Japanese word pairs under two conditions: massed and spaced. Half the words were semantically related to each other while the other half were not. Although there were no significant differences between semantically related and unrelated items in posttest scores, semantically related items led to more interference errors than unrelated items. Furthermore, contrary to the authors' hypothesis that spacing is particularly beneficial for semantically related items, spacing benefited unrelated items more than it did related items.
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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: Japan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A