Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:07:38.347Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Aspects of working memory in L2 learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2011

Alan Juffs
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, [email protected]
Michael Harrington
Affiliation:
University of Queensland, [email protected]

Abstract

This article reviews research on working memory (WM) and its use in second language (L2) acquisition research. Recent developments in the model and issues surrounding the operationalization of the construct itself are presented, followed by a discussion of various methods of measuring WM. These methods include word and digit span tasks, reading, listening and speaking span tasks. We next outline the role proposed for WM in explaining individual differences in L2 learning processes and outcomes, including sentence processing, reading, speaking, lexical development and general proficiency. Key findings are that WM is not a unitary construct and that its role varies depending on the age of the L2 learners, the task and the linguistic domain. Some tests of WM may in fact be tests of differences in ability to attend to aspects of the L2. Future research will focus on matching tests of WM more closely with linguistic tasks and using more standardized, replicable measures of WM in new areas including writing in non-alphabetic scripts, instructional interventions and cognitive neuropsychology.

Type
State-of-the-Art Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu-Rabia, S. (2001). Testing the interdependence hypothesis among native adult bilingual Russian–English students. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 30.4, 437455.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ackerman, P. L., Beier, M. E. & Boyle, M. (2005). Working memory and intelligence. Psychological Bulletin 131.1, 3060.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Adams, A.-M. & Gathercole, S. E. (1996). Phonological working memory and spoken language development in young children. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 49.A, 216233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, A.-M. & Guillot, K. (2008). Working memory and writing in bilingual students. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 156, 1328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, A.-M., Bourke, L. & Willis, C. S. (1999). Working memory and spoken language comprehension in young children. International Journal of Psychology 34.5/6, 363373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akamatsu, N. (2008). The effects of training on automatization of word recognition in English as a foreign language. Applied Psycholinguistics 9, 175193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al-Namlah, A. S., Fernyhough, C. & Meins, E. (2006). Sociocultural influences on the development of verbal mediation: Private speech and phonological recoding in Saudi Arabian and British samples. Developmental Psychology 42, 117131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alptekin, C. & Ercetin, G. (2010). The role of L1 and L2 working memory in literal and inferential comprehension in L2 reading. Journal of Research in Reading 33, 206219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A. D. (2000). The episodic buffer: A new component of working memory? Trends in Cognitive Science 4, 417423.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In Bower, G. H. (ed.), Recent advances in learning and motivation. New York: Academic Press, 4789.Google Scholar
Baddeley, A. D. & Logie, R. H. (1999). Working memory: The multicomponent model. In Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (eds.), Models of working memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2861.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baddeley, A. D., Gathercole, S. E. & Papagno, C. (1998). The phonological loop as a language-learning device. The Psychological Review 105, 158173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baddeley, A. D., Aggleton, J. P. & Conway, M. A. (eds.) (2002). Episodic memory: New directions in research. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Yehudah, G. & Fiez, J. A. (2007). Development of verbal working memory. In Coch, D., Fischer, K. & Dawson, G. (eds.), Human behavior and the developing brain (2nd edn). New York: Guilford Press, 301328.Google Scholar
Berninger, V. W., Raskind, W., Richards, T., Abbott, R. & Stock, P. (2008). A multidisciplinary approach to understanding development dyslexia within working memory architecture: Genotypes, phenotypes, brain and instruction. Developmental Neuropsychology 33.6. 707744.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, J. B. (1981). Twenty-five years of research on foreign language aptitude. In Diller, K. C. (ed.), Individual differences and universals in language learning aptitude. Rowley, MA: Newberry House, 119154.Google Scholar
Cheung, H. (1996). Non-word span as a unique predictor of second language vocabulary learning. Developmental Psychology 32, 867873.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clahsen, H. & Felser, C. (2006). Grammatical processing in language learners. Applied Psycholinguistics 27, 342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colom, R., Rebello, I., Abad, F. & Shih, P. C. (2006a). Complex span tasks, simple span tasks, and cognitive abilities: A reanalysis of key studies. Memory & Cognition 34, 158171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colom, R., Shih, P. C., Flores-Mendoza, C. & Quiroga, M. A. (2006b). The real relationship between short-term memory and working memory. Memory 14, 804813.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conway, R. A. (2007). Variation in working memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Conway, R. A., Kane, M. J. & Engle, R. W. (2003). Working memory capacity and its relation to general intelligence. Trends in Cognitive Science 7, 547552.Google Scholar
Conway, R. A., Kane, M. J., Bunting, M., Hambrick, D., Wilhelm, O. & Engle, R. (2005). Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user's guide. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 12.5, 769786.Google Scholar
Cowan, N. (2005). Working memory capacity. New York: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Daneman, M. & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 19.4, 450466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daneman, M. & Hannon, B. (2001). Using working memory theory to investigate the construct validity of multiple-choice reading comprehension tests such as the SAT. Journal of Experimental Psychology General 130, 208223.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Daneman, M. & Merikle, P. M. (1996). Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 3, 422433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dewaele, J.-M., Petrides, K. V. & Furnham, A. (2008). Effect of trait emotional intelligence and sociobiographical variables on communicative anxiety and foreign language anxiety among adult multilinguals: A review and empirical investigation. Language Learning 58.4, 911960.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Z. & Skehan, P. (2003). Individual differences in second language learning. In Doughty, C. & Long, M. (eds.) The handbook of second language acquisition. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 539587.Google Scholar
Dussias, P. E. & Piñar, P. (2010). Effects of reading span and plausibility in the reanalysis of wh-gaps by Chinese–English second language speakers. Second Language Research 26, 443472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (2001). Memory for language. In Robinson, P. (ed.), Cognition and second language instruction. New York: Cambridge University Press, 3368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C. & Sinclair, S. G. (1996). Working memory in the acquisition of vocabulary and syntax. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 49, 234250.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W. (2007). Working memory: The mind is richer than the models. In Roediger, H. L., Dudai, Y. & Fitzpatrick, S. M. (eds.), Science of memory: Concepts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 159164.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W. & Kane, M. J. (2004). Executive attention, working memory capacity, and a two-factor theory of cognitive control. In Ross, B. (ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation. New York: Elsevier, 145199.Google Scholar
Engle, R. W., Kane, M. J. & Tuholsky, S. W. (1999). Individual differences in working memory capacity and what they tell us about controlled attention, general fluid intelligence, and functions of the prefrontal cortex. In Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. New York: Cambridge University Press, 102134.Google Scholar
Ericsson, K. A. & Kintsch, W. (1995). Long-term working memory. The Psychological Review 102.2, 211245.Google Scholar
Felser, C. & Roberts, L. (2007). Processing wh-dependencies in a second language: A cross-modal priming study. Second Language Research 23, 936.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fodor, J. D. (1998). Unambiguous triggers. Linguistic Inquiry 29, 136.Google Scholar
Fortkamp, M. B. M. (1999). Working memory capacity and elements of L2 speech production. Communication and Cognition 32, 259295.Google Scholar
Frazier, L. & Clifton, C. (1996). Construal. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
French, L. M. (2006). Phonological working memory and L2 acquisition: A developmental study of children learning French in Québec. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.Google Scholar
French, L. M. & O'Brien, I. (2008). Phonological memory and children's second language grammar learning. Applied Psycholinguistics 29, 463487.Google Scholar
Friedman, N. P. & Miyake, A. (2004). The reading span test and its predictive power for reading comprehension ability. Journal of Memory and Language 51.1, 136158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, S. E. (1995). Is nonword repetition a test of phonological memory or long-term knowledge? It all depends on the nonwords. Memory and Cognition 23.1, 8394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gathercole, S. E. (2006). Nonword repetition and word learning: the nature of the relationship. Applied Psycholinguistics 27, 513543.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, S. E. & Alloway, T. P. (2008). Working memory and learning: A practical guide for teachers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., Lamont, E. & Alloway, T. P. (2006). Working memory in the classroom. In Pickering, S. J. (ed.), Working memory and education. Burlington, MA: Academic Press, 219240.Google Scholar
Grigorenko, E. L., Sternberg, R. J. & Ehrman, M. E. (2000). A theory-based approach to the measurement of foreign language learning ability: The Canal-F theory and test. The Modern Language Journal 84.3, 390405.Google Scholar
Harrington, M. W. & Sawyer, M. (1992). L2 working memory capacity and L2 reading skills. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 14.1, 2538.Google Scholar
Havik, E., Roberts, L., Van Hout, R., Shreuder, R. & Haverkort, M. (2009). Processing subject-object ambiguities in the L2: A self-paced reading study with German L2 learners of Dutch. Language Learning 59.1, 73112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hummel, K. M. (2009). Aptitude, phonological memory, and second language proficiency in non-novice adult learners. Applied Psycholinguistics 30, 225249.Google Scholar
Hummel, K. M. & French, L. (2010). Phonological memory and implications for the second language classroom. Canadian Modern Language Review 66.3, 371391.Google Scholar
Jefferies, E., Patterson, K., Jones, R. W., Bateman, D. & Lambon-Ralph, M. A. (2004). A category-specific advantage for numbers in verbal short-term memory: Evidence from semantic dementia. Neuropsychologica 42, 639660.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Juffs, A. (2004). Representation, processing and working memory in a second language. Transactions of the Philological Society 102.2, 199225.Google Scholar
Juffs, A. (2005). The influence of first language on the processing of wh-movement in English as a second language. Second Language Research 21.2, 121151.Google Scholar
Juffs, A. (2006a). Processing reduced relative vs. main verb ambiguity in English as a Second Language: A replication study with working memory. In Slabakova, R., Montrul, S. & Prevost, P. (eds.), Inquiries in linguistic development in honor of Lydia White. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 213232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Juffs, A. (2006b). Working memory, second language acquisition and low-educated second language and literacy learners. Low-educated adult second language and literacy acquisition. Proceedings of the Inaugural Symposium. Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics, Occasional Series, 89–104.Google Scholar
Juffs, A. & Harrington, M. W. (1995). Parsing effects in L2 sentence processing: Subject and object asymmetries in wh-extraction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 17.4, 483516.Google Scholar
Juffs, A. & Harrington, M. W. (1996). Garden path sentences and error data in second language sentence processing research. Language Learning 46, 286324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Just, M. A. & Carpenter, P. (1992). A capacity theory of comprehension: Individual differences in working memory. The Psychological Review 99, 122149.Google Scholar
Just, M. A., Carpenter, P. & Keller, T. A. (1996). The capacity theory of comprehension: New frontiers of evidence and arguments. The Psychological Review 103, 773780.Google Scholar
Kellogg, T. L. (2004). Working memory components in written sentence generation. American Journal of Psychology 117.3, 341361.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kim, K. K., Byun, E., Lee, S. K., Gaillard, W. D., Xu, B. & Theodore, M. H. (2011). Verbal working memory of Korean-English bilinguals: An fMRI study. Journal of Neurolinguistics 24.1, 13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, J. & Just, M. A. (1991). Individual differences in syntactic processing: The rate of working memory. Journal of Memory and Language 30.5, 580602.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kormos, J. & Sáfár, A. (2008). Phonological short-term memory, working memory and foreign language performance in intensive language learning. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 11, 261271.Google Scholar
Kroll, J., Michael, E., Tokowicz, N. & Dufour, R. (2002). The development of lexical fluency in a second language. Second Language Research 18, 137171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Y-S. & Chen, H-C. (2005). The effect of mnemonic training upon the working memory capacity. Bulletin of Educational Psychology 37, 4159.Google Scholar
Leeser, M. J. (2007). Learner-based factors in L2 reading comprehension and processing grammatical form: Topic familiarity and working memory. Language Learning 57, 229270.Google Scholar
Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B. & Loring, D. W. (2004). Neuropsychological assessment (4th edn). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
MacDonald, M. C. & Christiansen, M. H. (2002). Reassessing working memory: Comment on Just & Carpenter (1992) and Waters & Caplan (1996). Psychological Review 109, 3554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacDonald, M. C., Just, M. A. & Carpenter, P. A. (1992). Working memory constraints on the processing of syntactic ambiguity. Cognitive Psychology 24.1, 5598.Google Scholar
Mackey, A. (2006a). Feedback, noticing and instructed second language learning. Applied Linguistics 27, 405430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackey, A. (2006b). From introspections, brain scans, and memory tests to the role of social context: Advancing research on interaction and learning (Epilogue). Studies in Second Language Acquisition 28.2, 369379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackey, A., J. Philp, Egi, T., Fujii, A. & Tatsumi, T. (2002). Individual differences in working memory, noticing of interactional feedback and L2 development. In Robinson, P. (ed.), Individual differences and instructed language learning. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 181209.Google Scholar
Mackey, A., Adams, R., Stafford, C. & Winke, P. (2010). Exploring the relationship between modified output and working memory capacity. Language Learning 60.3, 501533.Google Scholar
Masoura, E. & Gathercole, S. E. (2005). Contrasting contributions of phonological short-term memory and long-term knowledge to vocabulary learning in a foreign language. Memory 13.3/4, 422429.Google Scholar
Miyake, A. & Friedman, N. P. (1998). Individual differences in second language proficiency: Working memory as language aptitude. In Healy, A. F. & Bourne, L. E. (eds.), Foreign language learning: Psycholinguistic studies on retention and training. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 339364.Google Scholar
Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (1999). Toward unified theories of working memory. In Miyake, A. & Shah, P. (eds.), Models of memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and recall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 442481.Google Scholar
Mizera, G. J. (2005). Working memory and L2 oral fluency. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Oberauer, K. & Süß, H. M. (2000). Working memory and inference: A comment on Jenkins, Myerson, Hale & Fry (1999). Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 7, 727733.Google Scholar
Oberauer, K., Süß, H. M., Wilhelm, O. & Wittman, W. W. (2003). The multiple faces of working memory: Storage, processing, supervision, and coordination. Intelligence 31, 167193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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, 377402.Google Scholar
Olive, T., Kellogg, R. T. & Piolat, A. (2008). Verbal, visual, and spatial working memory demands during text composition. Applied Psycholinguistics 29, 669687.Google Scholar
Osaka, M. & Osaka, N. (1992). Language independent working memory as measured by Japanese and English reading span tests. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 30, 287289.Google Scholar
Osaka, M., Osaka, N. & Groner, R. (1993). Language independent working memory as measured by Japanese and English reading span tests. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society 31, 117118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Papagno, C. & Vallar, G. (1995). Verbal short term memory and vocabulary learning in polyglots. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48A, 98107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne, J. S. & Ross, B. M. (2005). Synchronous CMC, working memory, and L2 oral proficiency development. Language Learning & Technology 9, 3554.Google Scholar
Pritchett, B. L. (1988). Garden path phenomena and the grammatical basis of language processing. Language 64, 539576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rai, M. K., Loschky, L. C., Harris, R. J., Peck, N. R. & Cook, L. G. (in press). Effects of stress and working memory capacity on foreign language readers’ inferential processing during comprehension. Language Learning. Article first published online: 18 August 2010, DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00592.x.Google Scholar
Richard, L. S., Jon, P., Leonore, G., Nancy, H. & James, J. (2006). Native language predictors of foreign language proficiency and foreign language aptitude. Annals of Dyslexia 56, 129.Google Scholar
Roberts, R. & Gibson, E. (2003). Individual differences in sentence memory. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 31, 573598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, P. (2002). Effects of individual differences in intelligence, aptitude and working memory on adult incidental SLA: A replication and extension of Reber, Walkenfeld & Hernstadt (1991). In Robinson, P. (ed.), Individual differences and instructed language learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 211266.Google Scholar
Robinson, P. (2005). Aptitude and second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 25, 4573.Google Scholar
Rodríguez, G. A. (2008). Second language sentence processing: Is it fundamentally different? Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Sagarra, N. (2000). The role of working memory on second language acquisition: A longitudinal study. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.Google Scholar
Sagarra, N. (2007a). Working memory and L2 processing of redundant grammatical forms. In Han, Z. & Park, E. S. (eds.), Understanding second language process. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, 133147.Google Scholar
Sagarra, N. (2007b). Online processing of gender agreement in low proficient English–Spanish late bilinguals. In Cabrera, M. J., Camacho, J., Deprez, V., Flores, N & Sanchez, L. (eds.), Current issues in linguistic theory series. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 240253.Google Scholar
Sagarra, N. & Herschensohn, J. (2010). The role of proficiency and working memory in gender and number agreement marking in processing in L1 and L2 Spanish. Lingua 120, 20222039.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sawyer, M. & Ranta, L. (2001). Aptitude, individual differences, and instructional design. In Robinson, P. (ed.), Cognition and second language instruction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 319353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, R. (1990). The role of consciousness in second language learning. Applied Linguistics 11.2, 129158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Service, E. (1992). Phonology, working memory and foreign language learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 45.A, 2150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Service, E. & Kohonen, V. (1995). Is the relation between phonological memory and foreign language learning accounted for by vocabulary acquisition? Applied Psycholinguistics 16, 155172.Google Scholar
Service, E., Simola, M., Metsanheimo, O. & Maury, S. (2002). Bilingual working memory span is affected by language skill. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology 14, 383408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shah, P. & Miyake, A. (1996). The separability of working memory resources for spatial thinking and language processing: An individual differences approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology General 125.1, 427.Google Scholar
Skehan, P. (2002). Theorising and updating. In Robinson, P. (ed.), Individual differences in instructed language learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 6993.Google Scholar
Speciale, G., Ellis, N. C. & Bywater, T. (2004). Phonological sequence learning and short-term store capacity determine second language vocabulary acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistics 25.2, 293321.Google Scholar
Sunderman, G. & Kroll, J. F. (2009). When study abroad fails to deliver: The internal resources threshold effect. Applied Psycholinguistics 30, 7999.Google Scholar
Tokowicz, N., Michael, E. B. & Kroll, J. F. (2004). The roles of study-abroad experience and working-memory capacity in the types of errors made during translation. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7, 255272.Google Scholar
Tolentino, L. C. (2010). Second language Swedish morphosyntactic instruction and cross-language similarity: An ERP investigation. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Tong, X. & McBride-Chang, C. (2010). Chinese-English biscriptal reading: Cognitive component skills across orthographies. Reading and Writing 23, 293310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trahey, M. & White, L. (1993). Positive evidence and pre-emption in the second language classroom. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 15, 181204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turley-Ames, K. J. & Whitfield, M. M. (2003). Strategy training and working memory past performance. Journal of Memory and Language 49.4, 446468.Google Scholar
Turner, M. L. & Engle, R. W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory and Language 28.2, 157–154.Google Scholar
Tyler, M. D. (2001). Topic knowledge in nonnative and native comprehension. Language Learning 51.2, 257280.Google Scholar
Unsworth, N., Hertz, R. P. & Engle, R. W. (2005). Working memory capacity in hot and cold cognition. In Engle, R. W., von Hecker Sedek, G. & McIntosh, D. N. (eds.), Cognitive limitations in aging and psychopathology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van de Craats, I., Kurvers, J. & Young-Scholten, M. (2006). Research on low-educated second language and literacy acquisition. Low-educated adult second language and literacy acquisition. Proceedings of the Inaugural Symposium. Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics, Occasional Series, 7–23.Google Scholar
Van Den Noort, M. W. M. L., Bosch, P. & Hugdahl, K. (2006). Foreign language proficiency and working memory capacity. European Psychologist 11, 289296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VanPatten, B. (ed.) (2004). Processing instruction: Theory, research, commentary. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, R., Torgesen, J. K. & Rashotte, C. (1999). CTOPP comprehensive test of phonological processing. East Moline, IL: LinguiSystems.Google Scholar
Walter, C. (2006). Transfer of reading comprehension skills to L2 is linked to mental representations of text and to L2 working memory. Applied Linguistics 25.3, 315339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waters, G. S. & Caplan, D. (1996a). Processing resource capacity and the comprehension of garden path sentences. Memory and Cognition 24, 342355.Google Scholar
Waters, G. S. & Caplan, D. (1996b). The measurement of verbal working memory capacity and its relation to reading comprehension. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology-Human Experimental Psychology 49.A, 5179.Google Scholar
Waters, G. S. & Caplan, D. (1996c). The capacity theory of sentence comprehension: Critique of Just & Carpenter (1992). Psychological Review 103.4, 761772.Google Scholar
Waters, G. S. & Caplan, D. (2003). The reliability and stability of verbal working memory measures. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers 35, 550564.Google Scholar
Waters, G. S. & Caplan, D. (2004). Verbal working memory and on-line syntactic processing: Evidence from self-paced listening. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (Section A) – Human Experimental Psychology 57, 129163.Google Scholar
Weissheimer, J. & Mota, M. B. (2009). Individual differences in working memory capacity and the development of L2 speech production. Issues in Applied Linguistics 17, 93112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, L. & Juffs, A. (1998). Constraints on Wh-movement in two different contexts of non-native language acquisition: Competence and processing. In Flynn, S., Martohardjono, G. & O'Neill, W. (eds.), The generative study of second language acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 111130.Google Scholar
Williams, J. N. & Lovatt, P. P. (2003). Phonological memory and rule learning. Language Learning 53, 67121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar