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.

Keywords

Lexical processing second language acquisition spacing techniques vocabulary learning

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