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Journal of Educational Psychology
©2018 American Psychological Association 2018, Vol. 1, No. 999, 000
0022-0663/18/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000336
Does Interleaved Practice Enhance Foreign Language Learning? The
AQ:1 Effects of Training Schedule on Spanish Verb Conjugation Skills
AQ:au Steven C. Pan, Jahan Tajran, Jarrett Lovelett, Jessica Osuna, and Timothy C. Rickard
AQ:2 University of California, San Diego
Do the cognitive benefits of interleavingÐthe method of alternating between two or more skills or
concepts during trainingÐextend to foreign language learning? In four experiments, we investigated the
efficacy of interleaved versus conventional blocked practice for teaching adult learners to conjugate
Spanish verbs in the preterite and imperfect past tenses. In the first two experiments, training occurred
broadly. during a single session and interleaving between tenses began during the presentation of introductory
content (Experiment 1) or during randomly ordered verb conjugation practice trials at the end of the
publishers. training session (Experiment 2). This yielded, respectively, numerically higher performance in the
blocked group and equivalent performance in the interleaved and blocked groups on a 2-day delayed test.
allied In Experiments 3 and 4, the amount of training was increased across 2 weekly sessions in which the
its disseminated blocked group trained on 1 tense per session and the interleaved group trained on both tenses per session,
of be with random interleaving occurring during verb conjugation practice trials. Interleaving yielded substan-
to tially better performance on a 1-week delayed test. Thus, although interleaving did not confer an
one not advantage over blocking under 2 different single-session training schedules, it improved learning when
or is used to practice conjugating verbs across multiple training sessions. These results constitute the first
and demonstration of an interleaving effect for foreign language learning.
user
Association Educational Impact and Implications Statement
The current study examined whether interleaving, a learning technique which involves alternating
individual between two or more skills or concepts during training, improves foreign language learning. In many
the foreign language courses, interleaving is rarely used; rather, one-skill-at-a-time blocked practice (block-
Psychologicalof ing) is more common. Across four experiments, college students used interleaving or blocking to learn
howtoconjugateverbsintheSpanishpreterite and imperfect past tenses. Interleaving yielded better verb
use conjugation skills than blocking when it was used to practice those skills across multiple training sessions.
These results suggest that interleaving can be beneficial for foreign language learning.
American
the personal
by the Keywords: interleaved practice, interleaving, language learning, Spanish tense, verb conjugation
for
solely Whichis more effective: learning one skill or concept at a time, Bjork, 2008; for reviews see Kang, 2017; Rohrer, 2012). With
copyrighted
is or learning multiple related skills or concepts concurrently? In interleaving, students alternate between a set of to-be-learned skills
intendedconventional educational practice, the former methodÐalso called during training. For instance, if the goal is to learn to calculate the
is blocked practice (or blocking)Ðis frequently used because of its volume of cylinders, spheres, and cones, then interleaving may
document seemingly obvious efficacy and ease of scheduling. However, a involve practicing with a problem involving a cylinder, then a
articlegrowing body of research has shown that the latter methodÐalso problem involving a sphere, then a problem involving a cone, then
This called interleaved practice (or interleaving)Ðcan have surprising a problem involving a cylinder, and so on (e.g., Rohrer & Taylor,
This benefits over blocking (Battig, 1972; Carpenter, 2014; Kornell & 2007). By contrast, blocking involves practicing on an entire set of
Faria Sana, Veronica Yan, and CogFog attendees for helpful comments;
Steven C. Pan, Jahan Tajran, Jarrett Lovelett, Jessica Osuna, and Timothy Dina Rodgers for assistance with subject pool management; Mark Appel-
AQ:11 C. Rickard, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego. baum for statistical consulting; Vicky Phun for assistance with checking
Jahan Tajran is now at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Jessica Spanish textbooks; and Anastasia Bogozova, Jon Clausen, Dominic
OsunaisnowattheDepartmentofPsychiatryandVeteransMedicalResearch D’Andrea, Danielle Emmar, Kellie King, Courtney Lukitsch, Ikjot Thind,
Foundation, University of California, San Diego. ThomasTing,DaanishUnwalla,andotherlabmembersforassistancewith
This research was supported by an American Psychological Association running the experiments.
(APA) Early Graduate Student Researcher Award, a National Science Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Steven C.
Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship, and a Psychonomic Pan, who is now at the Department of Psychology, University of California,
Society Award to Steven C. Pan. The authors gratefully acknowledge LosAngeles,2434FranzHall,LosAngeles,CA90095.E-mail:stevencpan@
Robert Bjork, Elizabeth Bjork, Sean Kang, Tamar Gollan, Doug Rohrer, psych.ucla.edu
1
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2 PAN, TAJRAN, LOVELETT, OSUNA, AND RICKARD
problems involving cylinders, then a set of problems involving The Spacing Account
spheres, and then a set involving cones. Interleaving tends to be
more difficult and often yields lower performance during train- The earliest hypothesis of the interleaving effect posits that it is
ing than blocking. However, it can generate better long-term solely a spacing effectÐthat is, the finding that, given the same
memoryÐan advantage called the interleaving effectÐas evi- overall duration of practice, temporally distributed practice results
denced by higher accuracy on a subsequent test featuring either in better long-term retention than does temporally massed practice
novel problems requiring the trained skills or the same prob- (Carpenter, 2014; Cepeda, Pashler, Vul, Wixted, & Rohrer, 2006;
Dempster, 1996; Ebbinghaus, 1885). Interleaving necessarily in-
lems but with new numerical values (Dunlosky, Rawson, corporates spacing because successive trials on a specific skill or
Marsh, Nathan, & Willingham, 2013; Kang, 2017; Soderstrom concept are separated in time by intervening trials on other skills
&Bjork, 2015; Yan, Soderstrom, Seneviratna, Bjork, & Bjork, or concepts (e.g., given to-be-learned concepts A, B, and C, an
2017). interleaved schedule may be ABCABCABC, such that there are
The interleaving effect has been repeatedly demonstrated for two trials in between successive exposures to the same concept).
motor skill learning (e.g., Goode & Magill, 1986; Hall, According to spacing-based accounts of the interleaving effect, the
Domingues, & Cavazos, 1994; Shea & Morgan, 1979; for reviews same cognitive mechanisms that underlie the spacing effect, such
broadly.see Brady, 1998; Magill & Hall, 1990), inductive visual category as study-phase retrieval processes or encoding variability (Benja-
learning (e.g., Hatala, Brooks, & Norman, 2003; Kornell & Bjork, min & Tullis, 2010; Cepeda et al., 2006; Dempster, 1996), may AQ:3
publishers.2008; Vlach, Sandhofer, & Kornell, 2008; Wahlheim, Dunlosky, also underlie the interleaving effect. However, it should be noted
allied &Jacoby,2011), and mathematics learning (e.g., Rohrer, Dedrick, that evidence is mixed for the efficacy of spacing for foreign
itsdisseminated& Burgess, 2014; Rohrer, Dedrick, & Stershic, 2015; Taylor & language learning (Bird, 2011; Lapkin, Hart, & Harley, 1998;
of be Rohrer, 2010). Based on those results, many cognitive scientists Lightbown & Spada, 1994; Serrano & Muñoz, 2007; Suzuki &
to have highlighted interleaving as a highly promising method for DeKeyser, 2017), perhaps because of the varied learning tasks
onenot investigated to date and the limited number of studies (for a review
or is improving education and training (e.g., Brown, Roediger, & Mc-
Daniel, 2014; Carpenter, 2014; Kang, 2017; Pan, 2015; Roediger of the applicability of spacing and testing effects to L2 learning,
and &Pyc,2012;Schmidt&Bjork,1992).However,someresearchers see Ullman & Lovelett, 2018).
user have called for more research on interleaving with new types of
Associationtasks (e.g., Rohrer, 2012) and flagged studies showing null or even The Discriminative Contrast Hypothesis
detrimental effects of interleaving (e.g., Dunlosky et al., 2013). The discriminative contrast hypothesis posits that the interleav-
individualOne notable area in which interleaving has largely failed to ing effect is attributable to the juxtaposition of items from different
the demonstrate robust benefits is second language (L2) learning. For categories on successive trials (Kang & Pashler, 2012). As such, it
Psychologicalofinstance, Schneider, Healy, and Bourne (1998, 2002) had college predicts that interleaving’s benefits are likeliest when categories
use students learn French±English word translations using interleaving have high between-category similarity (i.e., Birnbaum, Kornell,
or blocking. In Schneider et al. (2002; Experiment 1), students in Bjork, & Bjork, 2013; Rohrer, 2012; Sana, Yan, & Kim, 2017).
American the blocked condition, who studied translations grouped by seman- For example, the simple past and the present perfect tenses in
thepersonaltic category (e.g., tableware, foods, etc.), performed better on an English both refer to relatively subtle differences in past actions
by the immediate test than did students in the interleaved condition, who that can be difficult to discriminate between (e.g., ªI went to the
for studied translations in random order. Retention of learning in the store yesterdayº vs. ªI have gone to the store many timesº). By
twoconditions was equivalent, however, on a 1-week delayed test. comparison, the simple past and simple future grammatical tenses
solely In another example, Carpenter and Mueller (2013) had college refer to past and future events, respectively, and should be easier
copyrightedstudents learn French pronunciation rules using either interleaving, to tell apart (e.g., ªI went to the store yesterdayº vs. ªI will go to
is the store tomorrowº). According to the discriminative contrast
where different rules were represented on successive practice
intendedtrials, or blocking, where practice trials were grouped by rule. hypothesis, interleaving should be especially beneficial for learn-
is ing in the former case.
document Across four experiments involving high versus low amounts of
training, implicit versus explicit instructions, and easy versus Supporting evidence for the discriminative contrast hypothesis
Thisarticle stems from studies of visual category learning in which the degree
difficult tests, a blocking advantage for correct word pronunciation
This was consistently observed on immediate or 5-min delayed tests. of between-category similarity has been manipulated (e.g., Car-
Although the materials in these studies are far from the only skills valho & Goldstone, 2014; see also Zulkiply & Burt, 2013). When AQ:4
that L2 learners must master, the results suggest limitations of between-category similarity is high, an interleaving effect is typ-
interleaving and invite further research into when the technique is ically obtained, and when it is low, it is not (and in fact a blocking
beneficial. We address that issue in this article by exploring advantage is often observed, e.g., Carvalho & Goldstone, 2014;
interleaving’s efficacy for the promotion of grammar learning, and Kurtz&Hovland,1956;Zulkiply&Burt,2013).Thus,forthecase
of grammatical tenses that are easily confused with one another
specifically for foreign language verb conjugation skills. (whichisapropertyofthetensesthatwereexaminedinthecurrent
research), the discriminative contrast hypothesis predicts that an
Process Accounts of the Interleaving Effect interleaving advantage should be observed on a delayed test.
Todifferentiate between the discriminative contrast and spacing
Two prominent accounts of the interleaving effect, namely accounts, Kang and Pashler (2012) as well as Birnbaum et al.
spaced practice and the discriminative contrast hypothesis, suggest (2013) investigated interleaving for visual category learning in
circumstances under which interleaving benefits will be observed. which there was (a) interleaving between items on successive,
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INTERLEAVING AND VERB CONJUGATION SKILLS 3
contiguous trials versus (b) interleaving between items but with (singular, plural). All three characteristics are explicitly marked as
additional spacing between trials (where irrelevant materials, such part of the verb itself in Spanish conjugation. Consider the English
as cartoons or trivia questions, were shown). Both found that the verb ªto use.º In English, there is one simple past tense form of
interleaving effect was eliminated when additional spacing was that verb (i.e., ªusedº) and it is always used regardless of the
introduced (which by the spacing account should have enhanced subject of the sentence. In contrast, there are at least six past tense
the effect), suggesting that discriminative contrast is most likely to forms of the equivalent Spanish root verb ªusarº (to use); these
occur on successive trials that are in close temporal proximity, and vary from ªusabaº (I used) to ªusaronº (they used) depending on
that, in at least some contexts, it is the critical factor underlying the grammatical features of the sentence and the relationship of the
interleaving effect (see also Taylor & Rohrer, 2010; Zulkiply & past event to other events and/or to the present. When conjugating
Burt, 2013). Spanish verbs, each of those characteristics must be attended to.
For the beginning learner, that may yield a three-step process (see
When and How Much Interleaving Should Be Used Figure 1): identify grammatical tense, identify the subject (i.e., F1
pronoun), and then recall and use the correct suffix to conjugate
The point at which interleaving is introduced during training the root verb.
broadly.mayalsoimpact its efficacy. Most interleaving studies incorporate
the technique throughout the entire training session (e.g., Kornell The Challenge of the Preterite and Imperfect Tenses
publishers.&Bjork,2008;Sanaetal.,2017).However,someresearchershave
hypothesized that providing a certain amount of blocked practice Conjugating Spanish verbs in two particular grammatical tens-
allied prior to interleaving may yield even better learning (Carpenter & esÐthe preterite and imperfect past tenses (or more formally,
itsdisseminatedMueller, 2013; Dunlosky et al., 2013; Rohrer, 2012). That early aspects)Ðis an especially difficult skill for many Spanish L2
of be learners to master (Castañeda, 2011). Broadly, the preterite tense
to blocking may aid initial learning of a series of to-be-interleaved
one topics. Indeed, in a recent study, the use of interleaving only after refers to temporally specific past events, whereas the imperfect
not tense refers to temporally ambiguous past events. There are also
or is a specified amount of blockingÐa form of hybrid blocked-to-
interleaved training scheduleÐyielded better learning of verbal other defining characteristics (see Table 1 for a list of rules; for T1
and further details see Frantzen, 1995; Iguina & Dozier, 2008; Westfall
categories (i.e., lists of words grouped by invented category
user names) than did interleaving from the beginning of the training &Foerster, 1996). The difficulty lies in the potential for consid-
Associationsession (Sorensen & Woltz, 2016). That finding led the authors to erable confusion between the two tensesÐthat is, high between-
hypothesize that for some learning tasks, and particularly those category similarityÐas evidenced by sentences that, in the absence
individualinvolving explicit rule learning, interleaving throughout training of close inspection or sufficient Spanish experience, appear to
the disrupts the cognitive processes that are necessary to develop a maintain both their meaning and their grammaticality when ex-
Psychologicalofcomplete understanding of the categories being learned (e.g., pressed in either tense (but actually do not). AQ:5
use working memory, attention, hypothesis-testing). There is also ev- In current educational practice, the preterite and imperfect
idence from the motor skills literature that transitioning from tenses are often learned using blocked training. Our examination of
American initial blocked to subsequent interleaved practice can be helpful 25 common Spanish textbooks found that the two tenses are
thepersonal(e.g., Porter & Magill, 2010; for further discussion, see Kang, usually segregated into separate and nonadjacent chapters (e.g.,
by the 2017). In the present study, the interleaved group in each experi- Nissenberg, 2013), separate but adjacent chapters (e.g., Goodall &
for ment learned at least some introductory materials in blocked Lear, 2017), or separate sections within the same chapter (e.g.,
fashion prior to the onset of interleaving. Blanco & Colbert, 2009). In nearly all cases, each tense is learned
solely separately (although some books include ªpreterite vs. imperfectº
copyrighted subsections at the end of a chapter or in later chapters). The lone
is Learning Spanish Verb Conjugation Skills exception, Iguina and Dozier (2008), introduced both tenses in
intended Weinvestigated the effects of interleaving for the acquisition of
is verb conjugation skillsÐthat is, the modification of root verbs to
document reflect tense and other syntactic properties. Developing the ability
article to conjugate verbs is one crucial step in learning to speak and Preterite Tense:preterite Imperfect
This or imperfect?
This understand a second language. We used the world’s second most
widely spoken native language, Spanish, which more than 21
million students study as a second language annually (Fernández Which suffix matches Which suffix matches
&Roth,2013;FernándezVítores,2015).Spanishcanbeespecially the sentence pronoun? the sentence pronoun?
difficult for native English speakers because of differences in the
waythat grammatical tense is represented in that language relative
to English. Specifically, Spanish relies on verb suffixes and gram- Yo Tu Nosotros Yo Tu Nosotros
mar rules that in many cases have no clear analogues in English (I) (You) (We) (I) (You), (We)
ªeº ªasteº ªamosº ªabaº ªabasº ªabamosº
(Castañeda, 2011; Frantzen, 1995).
Figure1. FlowchartdepictingaprocessofconjugatingSpanishª-arºroot
Verb Conjugation in English Versus Spanish verbs in the preterite and imperfect tenses for sentences in which the
subject is the Spanish equivalent of ªI,º ªyou,º or ªwe.º On the bottom
In English, conjugated verb forms reflect tense but often osten- level of the figure, the correct Spanish suffix is listed below the corre-
sibly ignore person (e.g., first-person, third-person) or number sponding pronoun. AQ:12
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4 PAN, TAJRAN, LOVELETT, OSUNA, AND RICKARD
Table 1 materials in which explicit learning is involved (e.g., Sorensen &
Preterite and Imperfect Past Tense Rules and Verb Suffixes Woltz, 2016) suggest otherwise. It should be noted, however, that
verb conjugation skills are more complex than the materials that
Tense Detail have been used in prior studies of interleaving and L2 learning
Tense rules (e.g., vocabulary words) and differ from the category-learning
Preterite 1. For past actions that had a specific and clear beginning materials that comprise much of the interleaving literature.
and/or end.
2. To specifically state the beginning and end of a past
action. Design
3. For past actions that were repeated a specific number
of times. In each experiment, students with no prior Spanish language
4. For past actions that occurred during a specific period experience were randomly assigned to an interleaved group or a
of time. blocked group. In Experiments 1 and 2, all training (interleaved or
Imperfect 1. For past actions that lack a specific and clear blocked) occurred within a single session and was followed by the
beginning or end.
2. For past actions that were repeated habitually. delayed test 48 hr later. The primary difference between those
broadly. 3. For stating one’s age in the past. experiments was the manner in which interleaving was imple-
4. For past actions that ªset the stageº for another action. mented (e.g., when it was introduced during training and how it
publishers.Suffixes occurred at the trial level). In Experiments 3 and 4, we extended
Preterite If the pronoun is ªIº (ªyoº), replace ª-arº with ª-eº both the training process and retention interval: training occurred
allied If the pronoun is ªyouº (ªtuº), replace ª-arº with ª-asteº across two sessions in consecutive weeks, followed by the delayed
itsdisseminated If the pronoun is ªweº (ªnosotrosº), replace ª-arº with
be ª-amosº test one week later. The only design difference between those
of to Imperfect If the pronoun is ªIº (ªyoº), replace ª-arº with ª-abaº experiments was whether a short answer or multiple-choice format
onenot If the pronoun is ªyouº (ªtuº), replace ª-arº with ª-abasº was used for the delayed test.
or is If the pronoun is ªweº (ªnosotrosº), replace ª-arº with The dependent measure in each experiment was delayed test
ª-abamosº performance in terms of proportion correct over all test items.
and Note. Verb suffixes were limited to those used for the ªI,º ªyou [singu-
user lar],º and ªweº pronoun equivalents only. Rules adapted from Frantzen
Association(1995), Iguina and Dozier (2008), and Westfall and Foerster (1996). Overview of Procedure
Each tense was trained across three phases that were derived
individualparallel and emphasized the need to distinguish between the two from Spanish language textbooks: tense rules (Phase 1), suffixes
the throughout. Spanish instructional guides also recommend intro- (Phase 2), and verb conjugation practice (Phase 3). For each tense,
Psychologicalofducing both tenses separately (e.g., Westfall & Foerster, 1996). the following occurred:
use Phase 1 involved learning the four defining rules for the tense
The Current Experiments (see Table 1). After those rules were presented, participants com-
American pleted a series of practice trials in which they determined whether
thepersonal The primary question addressed in the present research was (a) an English sentence was an example of that tense or not (on the
by the Does interleaving benefit the learning of Spanish verb conjugation basis of those rules; see Table 2 for examples). T2
for skills among English speakers, and specifically for the preterite Phase 2 involved learning the suffixes that are to be used to
and imperfect tenses? In each of four experiments, after inter- conjugate verbs for different pronouns in the tense (see Table 1).
solely leaved or blocked practice, retention of verb conjugation skill was Three suffixes were learned per tense (one corresponding to each
copyrightedmeasured via a delayed test wherein participants had to conjugate 1
is of three pronouns: ªI,º ªyou,º and ªweº). Each of those suffixes Fn1
verbs in both tenses. That delayed test also enabled us to examine was appropriate for conjugating Spanish root verbs that had the
intendedtwo related questions: (b) Does the manner in which interleaving common ª-arº ending, such as ªhablarº (to speak). Participants
is is integrated into training affect the acquisition of verb conjugation completed one practice trial per suffix. That trial involved append-
document skills?; and more specifically, (c) Is there is an interleaving benefit ing the correct suffix to a given root verb (see Table 2 for
Thisarticlefor verb conjugation skills when training takes place across more examples). Hence, across tense and suffix, there were six possible
This than one weekly session, as is common in language courses? correct answers (i.e., Two tenses 3 Three suffixes per tense).
Across the experiments, we investigated the relative benefits of Phase 3 involved participants practicing what they had learned
interleaving under single (Experiments 1±2) versus multisession by conjugating Spanish ª-arº root verbs into new Spanish fill-in-
(Experiments 3±4) training conditions, the latter being relatively the-blank sentences (see Table 2 for examples).
rare in the current interleaving literature, and in cases where the Whetherallthreephasesoccurredinsuccessionforonetense,or
introduction of interleaving occurred relatively early during train- occurred in a manner which alternated between tenses, depended
ing (Experiment 1) versus later (Experiments 2±4). Thus, these on training group assignment (i.e., interleaved or blocked). After
experiments explored several implementations of interleaved prac- participants completed all three phases for both tenses, they pro-
tice for learning verb conjugation skills. The literature makes
differing predictions as to whether interleaving may improve
learning in the current research; the spacing and discriminative 1 Although conjugated verbs in Spanish differ across at least seven
contrast accounts generally imply that a benefit will be observed, different pronoun types and more than three root verb endings, for logis-
tical reasons our materials included only suffixes corresponding to the
whereas prior studies showing limits of interleaving for foreign pronouns ªI,º ªyou [singular],º and ªwe,º and only for regular verbs whose
language materials (e.g., Carpenter & Mueller, 2013) and for infinitive forms end in ª-ar.º
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