Desirable Difficulties in Vocabulary Learning

Abstract

In this article we discuss the role of desirable difficulties in vocabulary learning from two perspectives, one having to do with identifying conditions of learning that impose initial challenges to the learner but then benefit later retention and transfer, and the other having to do with the role of certain difficulties that are intrinsic to language processes, are engaged during word learning, and reflect how language is understood and produced. From each perspective we discuss evidence that supports the notion that difficulties in learning and imposed costs to language processing may produce benefits because they are likely to increase conceptual understanding. We then consider the consequences of these processes for actual second-language learning and suggest that some of the domain-general cognitive advantages that have been reported for proficient bilinguals may reflect difficulties imposed by the learning process, and by the requirement to negotiate cross-language competition, that are broadly desirable. As Alice Healy and her collaborators were perhaps the first to demonstrate, research on desirable difficulties in vocabulary and language learning holds the promise of bringing together research traditions on memory and language that have much to offer each other.

FIGURE 1

Actual (top panel) and predicted (bottom panel) final test performance as a function of whether the English translation of a Euskara word was studied, was predicted before being studied, or was chosen from 4 alternatives before being studied (data from Potts & Shanks, 2014)

FIGURE 2

Immediate and 1-week delayed performance as a function of translation direction (English to French or French to English) during Session 1. On the immediate test, participants were tested in the direction practiced during training. On the delayed test half the participants were tested in the practiced direction and half were tested in the other direction, and the results shown for the delayed test average over that manipulation (data from Schneider, Healy, & Bourne, 2002)

FIGURE 3

Mean translation latencies for Dutch–English bilinguals to translate words in each direction of translation when word lists were semantically categorized or randomly mixed (data from Kroll & Stewart, 1994)

FIGURE 4

The revised hierarchical model (adapted from Kroll & Stewart, 1994)

FIGURE 5

Latencies to name the English translations of Dutch words for monolingual English speakers and English–Spanish bilinguals at 3 times of study (data from Bogulski & Kroll, in preparation)