Keywords
central executive
listening span
How to Cite
Number of views: 597
Number of downloads: 407
Abstract
Individual differences in second language acquisition (SLA) encompass differences in working memory capacity, which is believed to be one of the most crucial factors influencing language learning. However, in Poland research on the role of working memory in SLA is scarce due to a lack of proper Polish instruments for measuring this construct. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of construction and validation of the Polish Listening Span (PLSPAN) as a tool intended to measure verbal working memory of adults. The article presents the requisite theoretical background as well as the information about the PLSPAN, that is, the structure of the test, the scoring procedures and the steps taken with the aim of validating it.
Funding
The National Science Centre
Poland
References
Abu-Rabia, S. (2003). The influence of working memory on reading and creative writing processes in a second language. Educational Psychology, 23, 209-222.
Ahmadian, M. J. (2012). The relationship between working memory and oral production under task based careful online planning condition. TESOL Quarterly, 46(1), 165-175.
Alptekin, C., & Erçetin, G. (2011). The effects of working memory capacity and content familiarity on literal and inferential comprehension in L2 reading. TESOL Quarterly, 45, 235-266.
Baddeley, A. D. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417-123.
Baddeley, A. D. (2003). Working memory and language: An overview. Journal of Communication Disorders, 36, 189-208.
Baddeley, A. D. (2012). Working memory: Theories, models and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 1-30.
Baddeley, A. D. (2015). Working memory in second language learning. In Z. Wen, M. B. Mota, & A. McNeill (Eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 17-28). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Baddeley, A. D., Gathercole, S., & Papagno, C. (1998). The phonological loop as a language acquisition device. Psychological Review, 105, 158-173.
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory. In G. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 8, pp. 47-90). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Bergsleithner, J. M. (2010). Working memory capacity and L2 writing performance. Ciências & Cognição, 15(2), 2-20.
Berquist, B. (1997). Individual differences in working memory span and L2 proficiency: Capacity or processing efficiency? In A. Sorace, C. Heccock, & R. Shillcock (Eds.), Proceedings of the GALA’ 1997 Conference on language acquisition (pp. 468-473). Edinburgh: The University of Edinburgh.
Biedroń, A., & Pawlak, M. (2016). The interface between research on individual difference variables and teaching practice: The case of cognitive factors and personality. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 6(3), 395-422. doi: 10.14746/ssllt.2016.6.3.3
Biedroń, A., & Szczepaniak, A. (2012a). Polish reading span test – an instrument for measuring verbal working memory capacity. In J. Badio & J. Kosecki (Eds.), Cognitive processes in language. (pp. 29-37). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Biedroń, A., & Szczepaniak, A. (2012b). Working-memory and short-term memory abilities in accomplished multilinguals. Modern Language Journal, 96, 290-306.
Bolibaugh, C., & Foster, P. (2013). Memory-based aptitude for nativelike selection: The role of phonological short-term memory. In G. Granena & M. H. Long (Eds.), Sensitive periods, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment (pp. 203-228). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Chan, E., Skehan, P., & Gong, G. (2011). Working memory, phonemic coding ability and foreign language aptitude: Potential for construction of specific language aptitude tests: The case of Cantonese. Ilha Do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures and Cultural Studies, 60, 45-73.
Cheung, H. (1996) Nonword span as a unique predictor of second-language vocabulary learning. Developmental Psychology, 32 (5), 867-873.
Conway, A. R. A., Jarrold, Ch., Kane, M. J., Miyake, A., & Towse, J. N. (2008). Variation in working memory. An introduction. In A. R. A. Conway, Ch. Jarrold, M. J. Kane, A. Miyake, & J. N. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working memory (pp. 3-17). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Conway, A., Kane, M., Bunting, M., Hambrick, D., Wilhelm, O., & Engle, R. (2005). Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user’s guide. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 769-786.
Conway, A., Macnamara, B., & Engel de Abreu, P. (2013). Working memory and intelligence: An overview. In T. P. Alloway & R. G. Alloway (Eds.), Working memory: The new intelligence (pp. 13-36). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Cowan, N. (2005). Working memory capacity. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Cowan, N. (2014). Working memory underpins cognitive development, learning, and education. Educational Psychology Review, 26(2), 197-223.
Daneman, M., & Carpenter, P. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 450-466.
DeKeyser, R. M., & Juffs, A. (2005). Cognitive considerations in L2 learning. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 437-454). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
DeKeyser, R. M., & Koeth, J. (2011). Cognitive aptitudes for second language learning. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 395-407). New York, NY: Routledge.
Doughty, C. J. (2013). Optimizing post-critical-period language learning. In G. Granena & M. H. Long (Eds.), Sensitive periods, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment (pp. 153-175). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Doughty, C. J., Campbell, S. G., Mislevy, M. A., Bunting, M. F., Bowles, A. R., & Koeth, J. T. (2010). Predicting near-native ability: The factor structure and reliability of Hi-LAB. In M. T. Prior, Y. Watanabe, & S-K. Lee (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 2008 Second Language Research Forum (pp. 10-31). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Retrieved from www.lingref.com,document#2382
Ellis, N. C. (2012). Formulaic language and second language acquisition: Zipf and the phrasal Teddy Bear. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 32, 17-44.
Ellis, N. C., & Sinclair, S. G. (1996). Working memory in the acquisition of vocabulary and syntax: Putting language in good order. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49A(1), 234-250.
Engle, R. W., Kane, M. J., & Tuholski, S. W. (1999a). Individual differences in working memory capacity and what they tell us about controlled attention, general fluid intelligence and functions of the prefrontal cortex. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 102-134). London: Cambridge Press.
Engle, R. W., Laughlin, J. E., Tuholski, S. W., & Conway, A. R. A. (1999b). Working memory, short-term memory, and general fluid intelligence: A latent-variable approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 128(3), 309-331.
Fortkamp, M. B. M. (1999). Working memory capacity and aspects of L2 speech production. Communication and Cognition, 32, 259-296.
Fortkamp, M. B. M. (2003). Working memory capacity and fluency, accuracy, complexity and lexical density in L2 speech production. Fragmentos, 24, 69-104.
Foster, P., Bolibaugh, C., & Kotula, A. (2014). Knowledge of nativelike selections in an L2: The influence of exposure, memory, age of onset and motivation in foreign language and immersion settings. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 36(1), 101-132.
French, L. M. (2006). Phonological working memory and second language acquisition: A developmental study of francophone children learning English in Quebec. New York, NY: Edwin Mellen.
French, L. M., & O’Brien, I. (2008). Phonological memory and children’s second language grammar learning. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 463-487.
Guará-Tavares, M. G. (2008). Pre-task planning, working memory capacity and L2 speech performance (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Brazil.
Harrington, M., & Sawyer, M. (1992). L2 working memory capacity and L2 reading skill. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 25-38.
Havik, E., Robert, E., van Hout, R., Schreuder, R., & Haverkort, M. (2009). Processing subject-object ambiguities in the L2: A self-paced reading study with German L2 learners of Dutch. Language Learning, 59, 73-112.
Juffs, A., & Harrington, M. (2011). Aspects of working memory in L2 learning. Language Teaching, 44, 137-166.
Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1992). A capacity theory of comprehension: Individual differences in working memory. Psychological Review, 98, 122-149.
Kane, M. J., Conway, A. R. A., Hambrick, D. Z., & Engle, R. W. (2008). Variation in working memory capacity as variation in executive attention and control. In A. R. A. Conway, Ch. Jarrold, M. J. Kane, A. Miyake, & J. N. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working memory (pp. 21-49). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kormos, J., & Sáfár, A. (2008). Phonological short-term memory, working memory and foreign language performance in intensive language learning. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11(2), 261-271.
Leeser, M. (2007). Learner-based factors in L2 reading comprehension and processing grammatical form: Topic familiarity and working memory. Language Learning, 57, 229-270.
Linck, J. A., Osthus, P., Koeth, J. T., & Bunting, M. F. (2014). Working memory and second language comprehension and production: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21(4), 861-883.
Mackey, A., Philip, J., Egi, T., Fujii, A., & Tatsumi, T. (2002). Individual differences in working memory, noticing interactional feedback and L2 development. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Individual differences and instructed language learning (pp. 181-209). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
Martin, K. I., & Ellis, N. C. (2012). The roles of phonological STM and working memory in L2 grammar and vocabulary learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 34(3), 379-413.
Miyake, A., & Friedman, N. P. (1998). Individual differences in second language proficiency: Working memory as language aptitude. In A. Healy & L. Bourne (Eds.), Foreign language learning (pp. 339-364). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Murdock, B. B., Jr. (1962). The serial position effect of free recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64(5), 482-488.
O’Brien, I., Segalowitz, N., Collentine, J., & Freed, B. (2006). Phonological memory and lexical, narrative, and grammatical skills in second language oral production by adult learners. Applied Psycholinguistics, 27, 377-402.
O’Brien, I., Segalowitz, N., Collentine, J., & Freed, B. (2007). Phonological memory predicts second language oral fluency gains in adults. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 29, 557-582.
Papagno, C., & Vallar, G. (1995). Verbal short-term memory and vocabulary learning in polyglots. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38A, 98-107.
Pawlak, M. (2017). Overview of learner individual differences and their mediating effects on the process and outcome of interaction. In L. Gurzynski-Weiss (Ed.), Expanding individual difference research in the interaction approach: Investigating learners, instructors, and other interlocutors (pp. 19-40). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Payne, J. S., & Whitney, P. J. (2002). Developing L2 oral proficiency through synchronous CMC: Output, working memory, and interlanguage development. CALICO Journal, 20, 7-32.
Robinson, P. (2003). Attention and memory during SLA. In C. J. Doughty & M. H. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 631-679). Oxford: Blackwell.
Sawyer, M., & Ranta, L. (2001). Aptitude, individual differences, and instructional design. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 319-354). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Service, E. (1992). Phonology, working memory and foreign-language learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 5, 21-50.
Skehan, P. (2012). Language aptitude. In S. Gass & A. Mackey (Eds.), Routledge handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 381-395). New York, NY: Routledge.
Speciale, G., Ellis, N. C., & Bywater, T. (2004). Phonological sequence learning and short-term store capacity determine second language vocabulary acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 293-321.
Unsworth, N., & Engle, R. W. (2007). The nature of individual differences in working memory capacity: Active maintenance in primary memory and controlled search from secondary memory. Psychological Review, 114, 104-132.
Wen, E. Z. (2015). Working memory in second language acquisition and processing: The phonological/executive model. In E. Z. Wen, M. B. Mota, & A. McNeill (Eds.), Working memory in second language acquisition and processing (pp. 41-62). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Wen, E. Z. (2016). Working memory and second language learning: Towards an integrated approach. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Wen, E. Z., & Skehan, P. (2011). A new perspective on foreign language aptitude: Building and supporting a case for “working memory as language aptitude”. Ilha Do Desterro: A Journal of English Language, Literatures and Cultural Studies, 60, 15-44.
Wen, E. Z., Biedroń, A., & Skehan, P. (2016). Foreign language aptitude theory: Yesterday, today and tomorrow. Language Teaching, 50(1), 1-31.
Wen, E. Z., Mota, M. B., & McNeill, A. (Eds.). (2015). Working memory in second language acquisition and processing. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Williams, J. N. (2012). Working memory and SLA. In S. Gass & A. Mackey (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 427-441). Oxford: Routledge/Taylor & Francis.
Williams, J. N., & Lovatt, P. (2003). Phonological memory and rule learning. Language Learning, 53, 67-121.
License
1.1 The Author hereby warrants that he/she is the owner of all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Work and that, within the scope of the present Agreement, the paper does not infringe the legal rights of another person. The owner of the copyright work also warrants that he/she is the sole and original creator thereof and that is not bound by any legal constraints in regard to the use or sale of the work.
1.2. The Publisher warrants that is the owner of the PRESSto platform for open access journals, hereinafter referred to as the PRESSto Platform.
2. The Author grants the Publisher non-exclusive and free of charge license to unlimited use worldwide over an unspecified period of time in the following areas of exploitation:
2.1. production of multiple copies of the Work produced according to the specific application of a given technology, including printing, reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means (reprography) and digital technology;
2.2. marketing authorisation, loan or lease of the original or copies thereof;
2.3. public performance, public performance in the broadcast, video screening, media enhancements as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them;
2.4. inclusion of the Work into a collective work (i.e. with a number of contributions);
2.5. inclusion of the Work in the electronic version to be offered on an electronic platform, or any other conceivable introduction of the Work in its electronic version to the Internet;
2.6. dissemination of electronic versions of the Work in its electronic version online, in a collective work or independently;
2.7. making the Work in the electronic version available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, in particular by making it accessible via the Internet, Intranet, Extranet;
2.8. making the Work available according to appropriate license pattern Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) as well as another language version of this license or any later version published by Creative Commons.
3. The Author grants the Publisher permission to reproduce a single copy (print or download) and royalty-free use and disposal of rights to compilations of the Work and these compilations.
4. The Author grants the Publisher permission to send metadata files related to the Work, including to commercial and non-commercial journal-indexing databases.
5. The Author represents that, on the basis of the license granted in the present Agreement, the Publisher is entitled and obliged to:
5.1. allow third parties to obtain further licenses (sublicenses) to the Work and to other materials, including derivatives thereof or compilations made, based on or including the Work, whereas the provisions of such sub-licenses will be the same as with the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons sub-license or another language version of this license, or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons;
5.2. make the Work available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, without any technological constraints;
5.3. appropriately inform members of the public to whom the Work is to be made available about sublicenses in such a way as to ensure that all parties are properly informed (appropriate informing messages).
6. Because of the royalty-free provision of services of the Author (resulting from the scope of obligations stipulated in the present Agreement), the Author shall not be entitled to any author’s fee due and payable on the part of the Publisher (no fee or royalty is payable by the Publisher to the Author).
7.1. In the case of third party claims or actions for indemnity against the Publisher owing to any infractions related to any form of infringement of intellectual property rights protection, including copyright infringements, the Author is obliged to take all possible measures necessary to protect against these claims and, when as a result of legal action, the Publisher, or any third party licensed by the Publisher to use the Work, will have to abandon using the Work in its entirety or in part or, following a court ruling in a legal challenge, to pay damages to a third party, whatever the legal basis
7.2. The Author will immediately inform the Publisher about any damage claims related to intellectual property infringements, including the author’s proprietary rights pertaining to a copyrighted work, filed against the Author. of liability, the Author is obliged to redress the damage resulting from claims made by third party, including costs and expenditures incurred in the process.
7.3. To all matters not settled herein provisions of the Polish Civil Code and the Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act shall apply.