Understanding the distributed practice effect and its relevance for the teaching and learning of L2 vocabulary

Abstract

The distributed practice effect, which concerns the impact of the organization of learning time on the retention of repeated information learned, has inspired a large body of empirical research. Such research has generally shown, among other things, that longer temporal intervals between learning episodes (spaced learning) result in greater ultimate retention of new information, in comparison with both massed and more narrowly-spaced learning episodes. The distributed practice effect has been researched with respect to a wide variety of skills, including a rich body of research on how distributed practice may impact vocabulary learning in a second language (L2). In this article, we present the concepts and theories necessary to understand the distributed practice effect before offering an overview of studies that have focused on how L2 vocabulary learning may be influenced by distributed practice. Despite the large amount of sustained interest among researchers in this way of organizing learning, these robust findings are relatively unknown to language educators and language learners. Thus, after reviewing the relevant literature, we end by identifying how this research may fruitfully inform L2 vocabulary learning and teaching.