Spacing techniques in second language vocabulary acquisition: Short-term gains vs. long-term memory

Abstract

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.

Efficiency in Second Language Vocabulary Learning

“…In test 3, the effect size was small for the uniform group (content words: Cohen's d 0.189; function words: Cohen's d 0.094) and medium for the expanded group (content words: Cohen's d 0.494; function words: 0.445). This confirmed the results of previous studies that function words are more difficult to remember (Schuetze, ).…”

“…In the fall of 2011 and 2012, a series of experiments were carried out investigating the uniform and expanded interval in more detail (Schuetze, ). Subjects were undergraduate students at a North American university at the West Coast of Canada enrolled in one of four sections of a course called “Beginning German I.” A questionnaire asked students about their previous knowledge of German in order to have homogenous groups (for details, see the methodology section below).…”

“…The experiments in the fall of 2011 (Schuetze, ) showed that the expanded group recalled more words in the first test and the uniform group in the third test. On the second tests the two groups were equal.…”

“…Results (Schuetze, ) showed that the extra encounter gave the expanded group a boost on short‐term gains, outperforming the uniform group on the first test and holding on to the higher recall rates on the second test, but on the third test students using the uniform interval showed higher recall rates as they had in the 2011 study. As in the 2011 experiments, differences were not statistically significant.…”

Understanding Teachers' Pedagogical Knowledge In ESL Vocabulary Teaching

“…In a study by Schuetze (2015), the spacing technique, which involves determining the type of intervals that lead to the highest vocabulary retention rates, was discovered to be useful to help students gain vocabulary for both short-term and long-term memory. Even though the results showed some variations on the mean scores between the expanded group and the uniform group, one conclusion derived was this technique carried some merits teachers could use in the classrooms to help learners increase and retain their vocabulary knowledge.…”