The effects of interleaving and blocking practice on L2 contextualized grammar learning

Abstract The present study tested the effects of interleaving versus blocking practice on contextualized grammar learning. An unfamiliar structure for the learners, the pronoun "y" in French, was used in meaning-focused activities, which are more challenging than existing studies, at three different tenses (past, present, and future) according to an AAA-BBB-CCC schedule in one group and an ABC-ABC-ABC schedule in another. Two groups from two intact classes ( n=22 and n=23 ) of first-year Chinese students studying French participated in the study. A pretest-training phase-posttest design was adopted as in existing studies. The blocked group used the structure with greater fluency (reduction of mid-clause pauses) during the training phase and the posttest while the interleaving group used the structure more accurately, but at the expense of fluency. Blocked practice seems to promote an initial stage of proceduralization in the application of the rule, but with more errors produced than in the interleaved group.