Teach and/or support learning
How students learn, both generally and within their subject/disciplinary area(s)
This summary is about using spoken or conversational-style language in teaching materials. It means designing texts that sound more like a person talking to another person. For example, saying “Let me show you how photosynthesis works” instead of “Photosynthesis is a process that…”. This approach makes students feel more connected and engaged, which helps them remember and use what they learn.
Conversational-style language boosts both retention (d = 0.30 ➕➕➕) and especially transfer (d = 0.54 ➕➕➕), helping students apply knowledge to new problems. It also increases perceived friendliness (d = 0.46) and supports effective cognitive processing (d = 0.62). The effects are consistent across subject areas and media formats. However, instructional sessions longer than 35 minutes showed little to no benefit, suggesting the strategy works best in short bursts.
This summary is based on a single high-quality meta-analysis (Ginns et al., 2013), which included 74 effect sizes from 22 studies. It analysed both learning outcomes (like retention and transfer) and processes (like friendliness and interest). The study examined a range of moderators and used robust statistical methods. Though some small effects were found for interest and learning assistance, the effects on transfer were the most consistent and practically significant.
Ginns, P., Martin, A. J., & Marsh, H. W. (2013). Designing instructional text in a conversational style: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 25(4), 445–472. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-013-9228-0
