Higher Education Presentation

Massed Task Repeition is a Double-Edged Sword For Fluency Development

Samantha Medeiros Second Language Acquisiton Dr. White

Overview

There have been past studies in this field, yet none have determined whether task repetiton is effective for long term fluency.

This study focuses on the effects of task repetiton with different time schdueles and exposures.

This is a study conducted in an EFL classroom in Japan, whose students are studying English as their second language.

Yuichi Suzuki Keiko Hanzawa

Authors:

Previous Research

Task repetition enhnaces L2 fluency development. When learners repeat the same task(oral narrative) it frees up their attention resources for generating the content of speech. Therefore using the addtional resources for creating accurate and fluent speech. Ahmadian & Tavakoli, 2011; Bygate 1996,2001; de Jong & Perfetti, 2011;Lambert et al.,2017; Lynch&Maclean,2000; Thai & Boers, 2016.

A priming mechanism refer to learners who perform the same task multiple times in order to activate linguistic expressions that can promote fluency development. In a different study, Lambert analyzed the different aspects of developing fluency when learning which are: speech rate, mid-clause, clause final filled pauses, and the number of repetitons and self-repairs.Bock & Griffin, 2000; de Jong & Perfetti, 2011; de Jong & Tillman, 2018; Lambert et al.,2017

In the hsitory of these types of research only one has been conducted in which the task repetiton inveral was maniuplated to investigate the distributed practice effects in speaking tasks. For example; having different time schudules of exposure or repetiton. In which the results indicated that differnt amounts of spacing influenced complexity, accuracy,and fluency. Bui et al., 2019

Massed Practice: studying all materials or completing all tasks in one session consecutively
Short-Spaced Practice: three times in the beginning of a class period and three times at the end
Long-Spaced Practice: three times as a part of two classes; in this case 1 week apart
Lag effect: the effect of different spacing durations (short vs. long)
Speed fluency: articulation rate, number of syllables per minute of speech excluding pauses
Breakdown fluency: refers to pause location
Mid-clause pause duration : how long the student pauses in the middle of a sentence
Clause-final pause duration : how long the student pauses after the sentence before the next
Mid-clause frequency:how often the student pauses in the middle of a sentence
Clause final frequency: how often the student pauses after the sentence before the next
Repair fluency: the ability to self correct during the task ( number of self-repairs per minute)
Repetition fluency: number of repetitions per minute

Vocabulary & Terms

To what extent does the task repetiton through three different schedules transfer to fluency gains measured by performace on new oral narrative tasks?

To what extent are the task repetiton effects of the three different schedules durable after 1 week?

What are the effects of three different task-repetition schedules on fluency during the training phase?

Research Questions

theoretical Framework and Motivation

This study focuses on theories of cognitive pyschology and how systematically maniuplating the timing of repeated practice can influence aspects of L2 learning such as lexical, pronunciation, and grammar.

The motivation for this study is based on is to find out to what extent repetiton schedule influences the "retention" and the "transfer" of the fluency training effect. Researchers want to know if the effects are long lasting and not temporary.

Participants

This study consisted of 79 first year students at a private university in Japan who have been studying English as a foregin language for 6 years prior. They were recruited from four intact English classes. Their English proficiency was estimated to fall between elementary and intermediate levels.

Massed

Short-Spaced

Long- Spaced

Control

15 out of the 79 were assigned to a control group

23 out of the 79 were assigned to short-spaced

20 out of the 79 were assgined to mass practice

21 out of the 79 were assigned to long-spaced

Testing Measures

After week 3 and 4 a delayed posttest was issued to the participants
This time it was the same prompt that was used in training to track Narrative Retention
The same procedure was used for the delayed posttest as for the pretest and intermediate posttest.
The control group did not receive any practice or training , they only took the pretest, intermediate posttest, and the delayed posttest.

After week 2 and 3 of traning and practice they issued an intermediate posttest for the participants.
The posttest followed the same procedure as the training with the expection of the time allocated for preparation.
They received a six-frame story different to the one they recieved during training
They were provided with 4-6 guiding questions during the posttest
Also, they were provided with 12 useful English words and their Japanese translations
Since the prepartion time was taken out, they were given 180 seconds to complete the task.

The pretest was taken individually where the participants read the instructions on a computer screen and recorded their narrations at a pace controlled by the instructor
The pretest followed the same procedure as the training with the expection of the time allocated for preparation.
They received a six-frame story different to the one they recieved during training
They were provided with 4-6 guiding questions during the pretest
Also, they were provided with 12 useful English words and their Japanese translations
Since the prepartion time was taken out, they were given 180 seconds to complete the task.

Two prompts were randomly assigned to each participant
They consist of a six-frame picture story with a similar narrative structure and little casual reasoning
The participants had to narrate the unusual event depicted in the story to a friend who has never seen it before
They listened to a model speech twice to familiarize them with narrative content and could not take notes
After listening they were allowed 90 seconds of planning with a list of 13 useful English words to help them narrate.
After planning they narrated the story for 120 seconds with aid from the picture only
They were instrcuted to start the narration with "Yesterday, I saw an unusual event"
They repeated this process six times consecutively

Delayed Posttest

Intermediate Posttest

Pretest

Training Sessions

repeating the oral narrative six times consecutively

repeating the oral narrative three times at the beginning and end of each class

Treatment measures

MassedPractice

Short-Spaced Practice

Long-Spaced Practice

repeating the oral narrative three times in the first and second week

Control Group

+ INFO

no practice no training recieved

+ INFO

Procedure Timeline

A noticeable difference in Week 4 with long-spaced practice:they tended to pause longer within amnd between clauses; yet it was occuring less frequently.
Also at week 4 differences amoung the groups were noticed for breakdown fluency measures
The massed and short-spaced group decreased the mid-clause pauses more than the long-spaced group
They also decreased the clause-final pauses more than the long-spaced group
At the 1 week retention test the massed group increased its number of repetitions compared to the long-spaced group
The articulation rate was slowest for the massed practice group compared to the short and long spaced groups
Though with repetition the massed group was more proficent in verbatim repetitions.
For all groups by the end of week 6, they achieved the same level of fluency

Major Findings and Results:

Major findings/Results

Conclusion

The researchers found that different task repetition schedules influence fluency changes during the training phase
As well as week one retention
At week 4, the long spaced group was most affected by the repetition schedule
With the short spaced group they were able to retrive the information just as well as the massed group indicating that the 45 minute interval was short enough to maintain or improve fluency skills.
Overall, the massed group was able to repeat the task quicker but only had a limited set of words in mind, while the short and long spaced groups had to be more cognitive about it.

Limitations and Directions for future Study

Limitations: First, the number of participants was very small especially in the control group which consisted of 15 out of the 79, to ensure correct and accurate data on practice distribution the groups should have been closer in number. Second, they should have tested for individual difference in cognitive apitudes instead of random assignment.

Future Study:The current study focused on fluency changes, yet other aspects of speech such as complexity and accuracy were not anaylzed. In addition the delyaed posttest should have been issued longer than a week after the experiement to better test retention abilities.The question now is "under what conditions" can a student mainatin fluency rather than "whether or not".

Thank You Very Much

Samantha Medeiros

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