Interleaved Practice in Foreign Language Grammar Learning: A Field Study.

Autor/inn/en	Schweppe, Judith; Lenk-Blochowitz, Annika; Pucher, Magdalena; Ketzer-Nöltge, Almut
Titel	Interleaved Practice in Foreign Language Grammar Learning: A Field Study. Gefälligkeitsübersetzung: Interleaved Practice in Foreign Language Grammar Learning: Eine Feldstudie.
Quelle	In: The journal of educational psychology, (2025) online first, 2025, 14 S.Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-0663; 1939-2176
DOI	10.1037/edu0000917
Schlagwörter	Lernen; Lehrmethode; Lernmethode; Übung; Sprachenlernen; Fremdsprache
Abstract	Interleaving is an effective strategy to improve lasting learning. The idea is to practice related, but distinct concepts in combination rather than separately. According to the discriminative contrast hypothesis, a prerequisite for its effectiveness is that the to-be-learned concepts are highly similar and thus hard to distinguish. This prerequisite may explain mixed evidence for interleaving in foreign language learning, as it may not apply to all areas of language learning. We investigated the effect of interleaved practice in foreign language grammar learning. In three field experiments in introductory Spanish classes, learners had to learn to distinguish the contexts in which the two verbs "ser" and "estar," which both translate to "to be," are used. In the blocked condition, participants worked on separate fill-in-the-blank practice tests on "ser" and "estar," while in the interleaved condition, participants worked on a combined fill-in-the-blank practice test. The final test was a new fill-in-the-blank test combining "ser" and "estar." Experiment 1 manipulated learning condition and time of final test (immediate vs. after 1 week) between classes. No interleaving effect was found. In Experiment 2, we added correct answer feedback and used a delayed final test only. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 but varied learning condition within class (random allocation). A significant medium-sized advantage of interleaved practice was found in both experiments with feedback after the practice tests. Our results thus corroborate previous evidence from the laboratory that interleaving can be effective for foreign language learning if the to-be-learned concepts are hard to distinguish. (ZPID).
Erfasst von	Leibniz-Institut für Psychologie, Trier
Update	2025/3