Title:
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Working memory, aspects of oral production and self-repair behaviour in L2
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This study explored the relationship of complex working memory (WM) and phonological
short-term memory (PSTM) to aspects of second language (L2) oral production and self-repair
behaviour. The study drew on Levelt's (1989; 1983) model of speech and perceptual
loop theory of monitoring while the concept of WM was based on Baddeley and Hitch's
(1974) multicomponent model of WM. Complex WM refers to the cognitive capacity of
simultaneous storage and processing of information while PSTM refers to the capacity of the
phonological store. The participants were 84 Emirati female university students learning
English in an intensive language program in Abu Dhabi. It was hypothesised that given the
limited automaticity of the language building processes in less advanced EFL learners, and
thus the dependence of these processes on attentional resources, speakers with higher WM
and PSTM scores would perform better in terms of fluency, accuracy, lexical and syntactic
complexity in a task with simultaneous online planning. In addition, a relationship of WM
with the number and the types of overt self-repairs was anticipated based on the attentional
demands of the monitoring processes. Complex WM was measured with a backward digit
span test in patticipants' Ll and a listening span test in L2. Phonological STM was measured
with a simple word-recall test in L2. Statistical analysis of the data showed a relationship of
complex WM with disfluency and general grammatical accuracy, while PSTM correlated
significantly with speech rate, general and specific measures of grammatical accuracy as well
as lexical variety. Complex WM and PSTM were also found to correlate moderately with
overall oral performance scores. No statistically significant results emerged between complex
WM, PSTM and number of self-repairs, but there was a significant negative correlation
between PSTM and phonological error-repairs. Overall, the findings support that WM
contributes to variation in L2 oral production but not overt self-repair behaviour.
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