Optimizing Fluency Training for Speaking Skills Transfer: Comparing the Effects of Blocked and Interleaved Task Repetition

Abstract

In an exploration of the effects of task-repetition practice on fluency development, English-as-a-foreign language learners performed three oral narrative tasks involving six-frame cartoons for 3 consecutive days. They engaged in task-repetition practice under either a blocked (Day 1: A-A-A; Day 2: B-B-B; Day 3: C-C-C) or an interleaved (Day 1: A-B-C; Day 2: A-B-C; Day 3: A-B-C) task repetition schedule. The results yielded by a posttest involving new six-frame cartoons indicated that blocked practice resulted in greater fluency development (faster articulation rate and shorter mid-clause pause duration) than did interleaved practice. Moreover, the learners in the blocked-practice group tended to pause more frequently at clause boundaries. Blocked practice also led to significantly longer mean length of run and higher phonation/time ratio during training, although this advantage failed to transfer to meaningful pretestposttest changes. These dynamic fluency developmental patterns are discussed to elucidate the underlying proceduralization in L2 speech processes.

Individual differences in memory predict changes in breakdown and repair fluency but not speed fluency: A short-term fluency training intervention study

“…While Suzuki et al (2020) revealed that the effects of blocked practice were contingent on individuals’ cognitive ability, the authors mainly focused on the acquisition of one aspect of grammar knowledge (i.e. relative clause construction) gained through narrowly focused grammar practice.…”

“…Extending the scope of this prior investigation to more meaning-focused practice with the aim of developing utterance fluency, the current study focuses on blocked and interleaved task repetition fluency training using picture narratives. For this purpose, the data gathered by Suzuki (2020) as a part of an earlier investigation, wherein English L2 learners in a Japanese university engaged in task repetition fluency training for 3 consecutive days outside of the classroom, were reanalyzed from ATI perspectives. The participants in this prior study performed three oral narrative tasks every day under either blocked (Day 1: AAA, Day 2: BBB, Day 3: CCC) or interleaved (Day 1: ABC, Day 2: ABC, Day 3: ABC) task repetition condition.…”

“…By reanalyzing the fluency data obtained as a part of the intensive fluency training intervention conducted by Suzuki (2020) in relation to learners’ aptitudes, this study aims at investigating the extent to which memory-related aptitudes are recruited for different aspects of L2 fluency development. In the current study, the roles of three memory components – PSTM, attention control, and associative memory–were examined simultaneously in fluency development in terms of the three dimensions (speed, breakdown, and repair fluency).…”

“…To the best of the author’s knowledge, the role of cognitive aptitude in task repetition fluency training has never been investigated, due to which no data on the effectiveness of different types of task repetition presently exists. In a short-term intervention study, Suzuki (2020) compared blocked task repetition (whereby participants performed the same task multiple times within a single training session) and interleaved task repetition (participants were given different tasks within a single training session) on fluency development. While the findings of this study suggest that blocked task repetition yielded some advantages over interleaved task repetition, there were individual differences in fluency development among the participants assigned to both groups.…”

“…While the findings of this study suggest that blocked task repetition yielded some advantages over interleaved task repetition, there were individual differences in fluency development among the participants assigned to both groups. Therefore, the aim of the present investigation is to reanalyze the data collected by Suzuki (2020) and uncover the role of cognitive aptitudes pertaining to memory – PSTM, attention control, and associative memory – in L2 fluency development through task repetition. Furthermore, potential ATI patterns are explored to examine the role of aptitude in fluency development under two different task repetition conditions.…”