INTEGRATING APPLIED LINGUISTICS AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE: A STUDY ON HUMAN MEMORY AND L2 ORAL FLUENCY

Abstract

This study investigated whether working memory capacity could account for individual differences in oral fluency in English as a second language (ESL). Working memory was assessed by the Speaking Span Test (SST) which taxes the processing and storage functions of working memory during language production (Daneman and Green 1986; Daneman 1991). ESL fluency was assessed by means of a speech generation task in which subjects had to talk about a picture. Working memory capacity was significantly correlated to oral fluency in ESL, thus corroborating Daneman's (1991) finding of a significant correlation between individual's working memory capacity and fluency in first language (L1).