Desirable difficulties: spacing and retrieval practice for L2 vocabulary¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 2 studies (1 causal, 1 review), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article organizes its rationale around desirable difficulties, defined as "activities or situations which increase the difficulty of a task initially," which slow learning and can lower short-term performance while improving long-term recall and transfer. Spaced repetition with pre-set intervals and retrieval practice after forgetting are the two difficulties built into the GoldList Method, drawing on the performance-versus-learning distinction of Soderstrom and Bjork as the article presents it.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Difficulty must remain "desirable" — not so challenging that learners cannot process the material or lose motivation

Constraints¶

• Short-term performance may be negatively affected by spaced studying, per the literature the article reviews

Target Learners¶

• University L2 learners of English

Target Learning Objectives¶

• Long-term retention and transfer of L2 vocabulary

Claims¶

• Standard Two Week Spacing Significant Over Baseline [+M]
• Faster rate of learning may be negatively related to long-term retention (efficiency-effectiveness trade-off) [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Three-phase model of learning in the brain: encoding, consolidation, retrieval

Examples¶

• GoldList Notebook Method (headlist plus three distillations)
• Classroom implementation practices for the GoldList Notebook Method
• Sequence simpler desirable difficulties (retrieval, spacing, interleaving) during initial L2 vocabulary encoding, reserving generation for post-encoding consolidation

Key Sources¶

• John Duplice. (2022). The GoldList Notebook Method: A Study on L2 Vocabulary Learning. IAFOR Journal of Education: Language Learning in Education, Volume 10 – Issue 1. https://iafor.org/journal/iafor-journal-of-education/