Retention in SLA Lexical Processing

Abstract

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.

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

“…Overall, it should to be noted that retention rates on long-term retention were in line with Milton's (2009) observation that many words are forgotten indeed. A possible explanation lies in the 'one plus three' design that was one repetition less than what had been shown in a previous study (Schuetze & Weimer-Stuckmann, 2011), which had revealed higher retention rates. The second experiment therefore increased the number of repetitions by one to a 'one plus four' design.…”

“…Overall, 117 students of four sections of 'Beginning German I' at the University of Victoria, Canada participated in the study, divided into two groups. Results (Schuetze & Weimer-Stuckmann, 2011) showed that there were no statistically significant differences among students using the uniform or expanded interval on short-term gains (tests carried out four days as well as several weeks after the last practice). However, in a long-term test carried out several months after the last practice students using the uniform interval did obtain significantly higher scores than students using the expanded interval.…”

“…The 'one plus three' design was born out of necessity to accommodate the class schedule that term. The 'one plus four' design was in line with the previous study (Schuetze & Weimer-Stuckmann, 2011) to be able to compare results.…”

“…First, it was designed to distinguish between short-term gains and long-term retention in the context of second language vocabulary acquisition using a uniform and expanded interval. Although Schuetze and Weimer-Stuckmann (2011) showed that the uniform interval might be preferred for longterm learning, these type of results need to be replicated in order to regard those results as reliable. Second, the study was designed to cater to the needs of students learning another language at the beginner's level.…”

A teacher development program on CALL materials evaluation: teachers' knowledge and attitudes toward technology

“…As a matter of fact, the Chapelle and Grgurović (2013) metaanalysis study has shown that the use of technology in language instruction known as Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has been proved to be at least as effective as, if not more effective than, the conventional face-to-face classroom. This idea is also supported by many second language acquisition (SLA) studies which have shown that CALL can promote language learning because it offers affordances for the learning such as providing language input (Frankenberg-Garcia, 2014;Schuetze & Weimer-Stuckmann, 2013), allowing pushed output (Alastuey, 2010;Payne & Whitney, 2013), or facilitating interaction which promotes learners'…”