Retrieval practice benefits for spelling performance in fifth-grade children.

Retrieval practice typically benefits learning in children, although little is known about the benefits of retrieval practice for learning spelling. We investigated this issue in three experiments with fifth-grade children from a low-income area of Brazil. In the experiments, children first read a list of words (study), and after a short interval wrote down the studied words after hearing and rereading them (copy) or after only hearing them (retrieval practice). After an interval of 4 days, spelling performance was greater for words from the retrieval practice condition than for words from the copy condition, but only when immediate corrective feedback was provided (Experiment 3). The current findings, therefore, suggest that retrieval practice followed by corrective feedback is an effective strategy to improve spelling performance of fifth-grade children.