In more than a decade years of teaching experience, I have found English language classroom, a great challenge

3.2 Innovative Teaching Methods for an Energized English Classroom

Spaced Learning to Better Absorb Information

“Timing is the answer to success.”

A spaced learning plan takes advantage of the way our brains are wired to help us absorb information more quickly.

It’s a technique that was developed based on research about how memories function by neuroscientist R. Douglas Fields. The idea is to spend short but consistent periods learning and then reviewing new material to optimize the brain’s natural memory encoding process.

Experiments have already shown positive results. Spaced learning was used as the means of instruction for a national curriculum biology course and led to rapid long term memory encoding, according to researchers.

What’s the takeaway for you as an ESL educator? Spaced learning can help you teach material much more efficiently.

With the right formula, you can teach a new vocabulary set or grammar concept over the course of an hour-long lesson and know that it’ll be encoded into students’ long term memories. It may be hard to imagine, but below we’ll provide a sample lesson to show that it’s totally doable.