语言意识对儿童二语听觉工作记忆可及性的影响——一项关于工作记忆可及性迁移假设的研究

The Impact of Language Awareness on Children’s Accessibility to L2 Auditory Working Memory:A Study of the Working Memory Accessibility Transfer Hypothesis

本研究通过一项实验考察了语言意识对不同年龄儿童(4岁、6岁、8岁、10岁)母语(汉语)及不同二语(英语、西班牙语、阿拉伯语)条件下听觉工作记忆可及性的影响。结果发现:(1)母语听觉工作记忆可及性随年龄不断提高;(2)三种二语的听觉工作记忆可及性从4岁到6岁与母语同步提高,但8岁开始下降,而10岁时英语和西班牙语的可及性有所恢复,而与英语、西班牙语差异较大的阿拉伯语的可及性继续下降;(3)6—8岁期间,儿童母语/二语差别语言意识有明显发展。因此,儿童语言意识的发展会在一定程度上抑制母语工作记忆可及性向二语迁移。基于此,笔者提出"工作记忆可及性迁移假设"对研究结果进行了理论解释。

This paper reports on an experimental study that investigates the impact of language awareness on the auditory working memory accessibility(AWMA) of 4-,6-,8-,and 10-year old children in L1(Chinese) and three L2(English,Spanish,and Arabic) conditions.Results reveal:(1) AWMA increases in L1 with age;(2) from 4 to 6 years old,children’s AWMA in all the three L2 conditions increases as in L1,and after decreasing at the age of 8,it increases again but only in English and Spanish,not in Arabic which is different from English and Spanish;(3) language awareness of the difference between L1 and L2 develops noticeably from 6 to 8 years old.Therefore,it may be concluded that children’s language awareness development may inhibit the transfer of working memory accessibility from L1 to L2 conditions.The "Working Memory Accessibility Transfer Hypothesis" is proposed for theoretical explications for the findings.