Developing mental orthographic representations in refugee spellers with low literacy: How much input is too much?

Background: We used two principles of implicit learning, variability and complexity, to train mental orthographic representations in refugee English learners to improve spelling. Methods: Twenty‐eight refugees enrolled in a 10‐week English class were trained on classroom words using stimuli designed to encourage implicit learning. We contrasted high‐variability visual input combined with either high‐linguistic or low‐linguistic complexity, using a short (<5 minute) PowerPoint‐based training. Participants were regularly tested on their spelling and were compared with themselves using single subject design. Individual effect sizes were aggregated across participants, and we used dependent measures t‐tests to compare conditions. Results: Participants learned significantly more treated words than control words in the high‐variability/low‐complexity condition, but not in the high‐variability/high‐complexity condition. Conclusions: Refugees can benefit from interventions designed to promote implicit learning but can be overwhelmed by too much input.