| Compared with the additional study of learned material,tests are more powerful in enhancing later retention.This is testing effect.Learners need to put efforts to extract memory of the learned material in tests.In this process,the connection with the certain material is rebuilt and there are more paths of extraction than before.Lots of researches have proved testing effect by choosing different material,using different sequences of trials,engaging different participants,changing the intervals,and providing different feedback.These researches also found that the interval of tests and the form of tests have effects on testing effect.However,there are not enough researches about testing effect in English reading teaching for junior middle school students.In this research,108 junior middle school students learned four English passages.Then they took three short answer tests or three fill-in-the-blank tests.And the final tests were given one month later after the initial learning.The aim of this research is to explore the effects which the interval of tests and the form of tests have on testing effect in long-term retention through four comparison experiments.Another aim is to find out the most powerful combination of the intervals and test forms,and this finding can promote the positive use of testing effect in English reading teaching in junior middle school.Experiment 1 compared the effects which the shorter interval(5 minutes-2 days-1week)has on testing effect with the longer interval’s(10 hours-1week-2 weeks)effects in the short answer condition.Experiment 2 compared the effects which the shorter interval(5 minutes-2 days-1week)has on testing effect with the longer interval’s(10 hours-1week-2 weeks)effects in the fill-in-the-blank condition.Experiment 3 compared the effects which the short answer test has on testing effect with the effects which fill-in-the-blank test has in the shorter interval(5minutes-2 days-1 week)condition.Experiment 4 compared the effects which the short answer test has on testing effect with the effects which fill-in-the-blank test has in the longer interval(10hours-1week-2 weeks)condition.Research findings: 1.The shorter interval(5 minutes-2 days-1 week)is better than the longer interval(10 hours-1week-2 weeks)for long-term retention whether in the short answer condition or in the fill-in-the-blank condition.2.Although there is no significant difference between the short answer and the fill-in-the-blank whether in the shorter interval(5 minutes-2 days-1 week)condition or in the longer interval(10hours-1week-2 weeks)condition,the short answer is slightly more powerful in long-term retention.According to this research,the shorter interval(5 minutes-2 days-1 week)and the short answer test are better for long-term retention.So English teacher can combine the shorter interval and the short answer test in English reading teaching.In this way,the test with some difficulty of extraction can help students improve their ability to store and retrieve the text information in a long term. |
