DISFLUENCY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING?

Abstract

Desirable difficulties, coined by Bjork (1994), includes concepts such as spacing learning, interleaving, and disfluency, all of which can be practiced in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Sans Forgetica, a disfluent font developed at RMIT University in Australia, was specifically designed to enhance learning. Seventy-two preservice elementary school teachers in Switzerland participated in this study aimed at increasing awareness of desirable difficulties in general, and more specifically in the role of disfluency in reading comprehension. No significant differences between participants receiving a text on scaffolding and desirable difficulties in EFL classrooms in Sans Forgetica or Arial were found yet this study contributes to a larger discussion of alternative practices in English language classrooms around the world. Article visualizations: