工作记忆容量和任务频次对中国英语学习者口语产出的影响

The Effects of Working Memory Capacity and Task Frequency on Chinese EFL Learners' Oral Production

本研究探讨工作记忆容量和任务频次对英语学习者口语产出的影响。二十四位来自中国某理工大学的中等水平英语学习者参加了本次研究。研究者通过电脑版阅读广度测试测量了受试的工作记忆容量,以复述故事的方式收集了受试的三次口语产出数据,从准确度、复杂度和流利度三个维度对受试的口语产出进行了分析。研究结果表明,工作记忆容量制约口语产出的流利度和准确度,增加任务频次能提高口语产出的准确度、复杂度和流利度。数据分析进一步表明,任务频次的增加更能帮助工作记忆容量低的受试提高口语产出的准确度。研究者认为,工作记忆容量与口语产出的变化有一定关系,重复练习有助于学习者释放认知资源,有效提高其口语水平。

This study investigates howworking memory capacity(WM C)and task frequency affects English learners’oral production.The participants were 24 intermediate Chinese university EFL learners.Their working memory capacity was assessed by a computerized reading span task,and L2 oral production was elicited by a story-recalling task.Participants’performance was assessed by the accuracy,fluency and complexity of their oral production.The results showed that individual differences in WM C impacted the fluency and accuracy of L2 oral performance.Increased task frequency resulted in consistent effects on the accuracy,complexity,and fluency of L2 oral production.Also,it further improved the accuracy of the learners with lowWM C.We conclude by proposing that WM C partially accounts for variation in oral production,and repeated practice may be an effective way to improve oral performance by freeing up learners’cognitive resources.