Effects of spacing on the acquisition of explicit and tacit vocabulary knowledge

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H05943
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Kansai University
• Principal Investigator: Nakata Tatsuya 関西大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (00758188)
• Research Collaborator: ELGORT Irina
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 外国語教育 / 英語教育 / 第二言語習得 / 語彙習得 / 分散効果 / 明示的知識 / 暗示的知識

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of massing and spacing on the acquisition of explicit and tacit vocabulary knowledge in a second language. An experiment conducted with Japanese learners of English showed that spaced learning led to significantly higher scores than massed learning on posttests measuring explicit knowledge. On a posttest tapping tacit knowledge, however, no statistically significant difference was found between massed and spaced learning.

Free Research Field

第二言語習得

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は第二言語語彙習得において、分散学習は明示的知識の習得を促進するものの、暗示的知識の習得は必ずしも促進しないことを示した世界でも初めての研究である。認知心理学の中で最も頑強な現象の一つと言われる分散効果が必ずしも成り立たないことを示したという点で、分散効果の生起過程に関して理論的な貢献が期待される。また、本研究の知見をもとに、効果的な語彙学習教材・指導法を開発することが可能になる。