Reframing Productive Failure for L2 Speaking through Short-Cycle Repetition

Abstract

Productive Failure (PF) yields strong learning gains in structured STEM domains, but evidence from L2 speaking is inconsistent. Oral production involves real-time processing and dominant L1-based encoding routes, which restrict exploratory attempts and weaken the cognitive conflict central to PF. Drawing on Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), this study argues that the limited effects of PF in speaking arise not from flaws in the mechanism but from insufficient repetition to stabilize emerging patterns, as also noted by Rahayu (2021). To address this limitation, the paper proposes a short-cycle PF model consisting of rapid, repeated loops of generation, consolidation, and regeneration. Each cycle increases the visibility of structural differences, disrupts entrenched L1.