Developing group-format reading span tests of English and Japanese for high-school students and investigating the relationship between working memory and English proficiency

Abstract

e present study develops group-format reading span tests RSTs of Japanese and English for Japanese high-school students and investigates whether it is feasible to administer the tests to groups within reasonably short periods. Reliability coe cients for the newly-developed RSTs were high; for Japanese, α .864 and for English, α .875. Moreover, test scores were found to be normally distributed. ese ndings indicate that the RSTs are e ective for group administration. Further analyses of correlation di erences between JapaneseEnglish RST scores found correlation coe cients of .677 and .531 for higher English-pro ciency and lower English-pro ciency students, respectively, while a prior study has reported a correlation coe cient of .84 for English-major students. ese ndings suggest that working memory in L2 reading functions more similarly to L1 reading when L2 pro ciency is higher.

English Reading Comprehension by Japanese High School Students: Structural Equation Modeling including Working Memory and L1 Literacy

“…Various theoretical orientations have been discussed regarding the connection between the L1 and the L2, including the interdependence hypothesis, the threshold hypothesis, and the dual-language system. In addition, many studies have found that the working memory capacity in the L1 and L2 are strongly correlated (e.g., Osaka & Osaka, 1992;Osaka, Osaka, & Groner, 1993;Shibasaki, Tokimoto, Ono, & Inoue, 2015). As a result of these findings, L1 literacy has been included in the L2 reading model.…”

“…The English RST (Shibasaki et al, 2015) was used for the study. This is the only test of its kind developed specifically for Japanese high school students, and it showed a relatively higher reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .875).…”