Assessing the relationship of working memory to L2 reading: Does the nature of comprehension process and reading span task make a difference?

Alptekin, Cem; Erçetin, Gülcan

doi:10.1016/j.system.2009.09.007

Cited by 55 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…No marks were given to the practice session items. This was consistent with the scoring method in recent studies (e.g., Alptekin & Erçetin, 2009). Then a composite working memory score was used as an indicator of the participants' working memory capacity (e.g., Lesser, 2007;Waters & Caplan, 1996).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Developing a Non-language Related Span Test for the Use in Language-specific and Cross-language Studies

Shahnazari-Dorcheh¹,

Roshan²

2012

ELT

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Due to the lack of span test for the use in language-specific and cross-language studies, this study provides L1 and L2 researchers with a reliable language-independent span test (math span test) for the measurement of working memory capacity. It also describes the development, validation, and scoring method of this test. This test included 70 simple math problems, and was developed based on Salthouse and Babcock's (1991) and Robert and Gibson's (2002) math span tests. The shortcomings of the test were identified and removed over five pilot studies on 48 participants. The final test was used in an experimental study with a group of L1 Persian EFL learners. Results of an item analysis, as indicated by Cronbach's Alpha, indicated an internal reliability of .850 and .863 for the math span test processing and recall respectively. This suggests that the newly developed test is reliable enough and could be used to measure working memory capacity in L1 and L2 studies. This study also provides a clear procedure for the development and scoring of a math span test for the use in L1 and L2 studies.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Developing a Non-language Related Span Test for the Use in Language-specific and Cross-language Studies

Shahnazari-Dorcheh¹,

Roshan²

2012

ELT

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“…Previous research focusing on WM in second language acquisition (Alptekin & Ercetin, 2009;Harrington & Sawyer, 1992;Hummel, 2009;Juffs, 2004;Kempe, Brooks, & Kharkhurin, 2010;Leeser, 2007;Masoura & Gathercole, 2005;Speciale, N. Ellis, & Bywater, 2004;Tagarelli, Borges Mota, & Rebuschat, 2011) provided mixed results regarding the relation of WM to L2 learning, specifically learning through incidental exposure.…”

Section: Working Memory and L2 Grammarmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animacy, Frequency and Working Memory Effects in the Acquisition of a Noun-Adjective Agreement Pattern in L2 under Incidental Learning Conditions

Denhovska¹

2016

IJEL

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Animacy is recognized as an important feature in cognition and language processing. The present paper reports the results of an experiment that investigated the effects of animacy of the head noun (animate, denoting animals-epicenes, and inanimate, denoting non-living objects) and working memory on the learning of a noun-adjective agreement pattern in Russian. Participants were 60 novice learners whose L1 did not mark grammatical gender. The between-subjects design manipulated token frequency (high vs. low) under incidental learning conditions. No animacy effect was found in either learning condition. Working memory was a significant factor in both incidental learning conditions, and it explained a greater amount of variance in the high token frequency condition where accuracy was also significantly higher than in the low token condition. The results have implications for incidental learning research and language learning practices, specifically how different factors contribute to the acquisition of L2 grammatical knowledge.

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“…The majority of prior studies on L2 reading present evidence of a relationship between working memory and reading comprehension (Alptekin & Erçetin, 2009;Harrington & Sawyer, 1992;Lesser, 2007;Walter, 2004). Harrington and Sawyer (1992), for example, studied the relationship between L2 working memory capacity and L2 reading ability among Japanese learners of English.…”

Section: Review Of the Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of STM Span, Syntactic Awareness, and Vocabulary Knowledge on Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

Hashemin

Mahmoudi

2016

TPLS

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Abstract-The present study aimed at investigating the effects of Short-Term Memory (STM) span, syntactic awareness, and vocabulary knowledge on Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension. The research data were collected using quantitative methods. The data collection instruments included Oxford Placement Test, a working memory span test, and reading pretests and posttests. Sixty seven female intermediate level students were randomly assigned into the three groups of control, syntactic awareness, and vocabulary knowledge. Their performances then were measured and analyzed. Not only did the results reveal that there was a significant difference between the experimental groups and the control group in reading comprehension but also a significant difference between the two experimental groups. In other words, students in the vocabulary knowledge group benefitted more than students in the syntactic awareness. In addition, findings from the study indicated that STM does not affect reading comprehension ability of the students.

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Assessing the relationship of working memory to L2 reading: Does the nature of comprehension process and reading span task make a difference?

Cited by 55 publications

References 36 publications

Developing a Non-language Related Span Test for the Use in Language-specific and Cross-language Studies

Developing a Non-language Related Span Test for the Use in Language-specific and Cross-language Studies

Animacy, Frequency and Working Memory Effects in the Acquisition of a Noun-Adjective Agreement Pattern in L2 under Incidental Learning Conditions

Effects of STM Span, Syntactic Awareness, and Vocabulary Knowledge on Iranian EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

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