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Phonological memory and lexical, narrative, and grammatical skills in second language oral production by adult learners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2006

IRENA O'BRIEN ,
NORMAN SEGALOWITZ ,
JOE COLLENTINE  and
BARBARA FREED
IRENA O'BRIEN
Affiliation:
Université du Québec à Montréal and Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance
NORMAN SEGALOWITZ
Affiliation:
Concordia University and Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance
JOE COLLENTINE
Affiliation:
Northern Arizona University
BARBARA FREED
Affiliation:
Carnegie Mellon University
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Abstract

This study investigated the role of phonological memory (PM) in second language (L2) speech production by English-speaking adults who were learning Spanish. PM, operationalized as serial nonword recognition, and L2 lexical, narrative, and grammatical abilities from speech samples were assessed 13 weeks apart. After controlling for the amount of speech output, PM contributed significantly to the development of L2 narrative skills for less proficient participants (17.5% of variance explained) and to gains in correct use of function words for more proficient participants (15.7% of variance explained). These findings suggest that PM plays an important role in narrative development at earlier stages of L2 learning and in the acquisition of grammatical competence at later stages.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , July 2006 , pp. 377 - 402
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

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