工作记忆对中国少数民族大学生英语动词习得的影响

The Effect of Working Memory on Chinese Minority L2 LearnersAcquisition of English Verbs

本研究以问卷调查的方式,对中南民族大学英语专业和非英语专业大二少数民族学生的工作记忆容量和词汇习得情况进行了调查。SPSS皮尔森相关系数和独立样本T检验结果发现:(1)工作记忆容量与动词习得成绩正相关;(2)少数民族大学生的英语语言水平与他们的字母记忆广度、英语阅读广度测试成绩正相关,与汉语记忆能力没有显著关系;(3)英语专业少数民族学生的动词测试成绩普遍高于非英语专业少数民族学生,即语言水平越高词汇习得越好。因此,本研究得出如下结论:工作记忆对少数民族学习者的动词习得有影响,但少数民族学习者的汉语工作记忆对学习者的二语水平没有显著影响;少数民族学习者的二语水平不仅对学习者的动词习得有影响,对他们的二语工作记忆也有制约作用。

In order to investigate the relationship between L2 learners＇ working memory and lexical acquisition, questionnaires are used in this research by taking sixty English-majors and sixty non-English- majors who are minority students as participants. Data analysis by Pearson Relation and Independent Sample T-test via SPSS 19.0 shows that 1 ） minority L2 learners＇ working memory capacity has a positive correlation with their English verb acquisition ability; 2） target language level has a positive correlation with the scores of letter span and English reading span tests, while the level of target language does not correlate with Chinese memory span; and 3） minority students who have a higher English level have a better performance in English verb acquisition. Therefore, this study concludes that minority learners＇ working memory plays an important role in their L2 lexical acquisition, but their Chinese working memory span has no significant influence on their L2 level; and minority learners＇ L2 level has something to do with their English verb acquisition, and meanwile, also limits their L2 working memory mechanism.