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.
Second language learners are faced with the challenging task of remembering many new words. Exactly how learners are supposed to accomplish that task is disputed. Research on lexical processing that has been carried out in cognitive psychology showed that rehearsing words in expanded patterns, that is, with a delay between each rehearsal, leads to high retention rates. This article reports on a study that was devised to test retention in second language vocabulary learning, comparing a uniform versus a graduated delay. The study used an online vocabulary program testing first-year students of German. Results showed that on long-term retention, a uniform delay led to higher retention rates than a graduated delay.
This article reports on a study carried out twice on an online second language course that was set up between a Canadian University and a German University. In that course, students of German in Canada and students of English in Germany exchanged 2,412 messages in 2004 and 1,831 messages in 2005. A list of processing criteria for assessment was developed so the assessment process was transparent to instructors and students alike. The main research question was if these processing criteria led to the development of an intercultural communicative competence as defined by Byram (1997). Results showed that students who asked wh‐questions, shared personal experiences, gave examples, and found material that was not provided in the course, engaged in the online dialogue with great success.
An ongoing question in second language vocabulary learning is how to optimize the acquisition of words. One approach is the so‐called “spaced repetition technique” that uses intervals to repeat words in a given time frame (Balota et al., ; Leitner, ; Oxford, ; Pimsleur, ; Roediger & Karpicke, ; Schuetze & Weimer‐Stuckmann, 2011). Part of the discussion is on the number of words that can be acquired. Interestingly, within this context a question that has not been explored yet is: Is it more beneficial to increase the number of repetitions (while keeping the number of words constant) or to reduce the number of words (while keeping the number of repetitions constant) in order to improve recall rates? This was the premise of the study carried out with beginning learners of German. Results show that reducing the number of words was not as effective as increasing the number of repetitions, a result that is supported by our understanding of how words are processed in the brain, in particular by the phonological loop (Baddeley, ).
This article presents the concept development, research programming, and learning design of a lexical processing web application, Virtual Vocabulary, which was developed using theories in both cognitive psychology and second language acquisition (SLA). It is being tested with first-year students of German at the University of Victoria in Canada, specifically looking at intervals and time-sets in a large study on spaced retrieval. The findings are being used to refine language-learning software for second language lexical acquisition.
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