Effects of the 4/3/2 activity revisited: Aptitude matters, but distributed practice does not

Abstract

This study investigated how individuals' perceptual–cognitive aptitudes (auditory processing and working memory) and practice schedules (massed vs. spaced) relate to L2 speech production—specifically fluency and accuracy—during a repeated monologue task under increasing time pressure. The sample comprised 50 Chinese university students with intermediate to advanced English proficiency. Participants were randomly assigned to either a massed 4/3/2 group (n = 25), who completed the task continuously, or a spaced 4/3/2 group, who had two 5-min intervals between monologues. Statistical analyses indicated (a) that the 4/3/2 activity significantly promoted certain aspects of fluency (but not accuracy) development, regardless of the interval conditions; and (b) that fluency gains, particularly those related to linguistic encoding (e.g., mid-clause pauses, past tense error ratio), were significantly associated with participants’ perceptual abilities (i.e., auditory processing) rather than their cognitive working memory. Taken together, these findings suggest that more precise perceptual acuity may play a facilitative role in L2 speech production among Chinese L2 learners. The results highlight a unique relationship between different aptitude domains (perceptual vs. cognitive) and language development (fluency vs. accuracy) .