Role of Working Memory in SLA: Factors affecting development in L2 English wh-questions

by Clare Wright

This book focuses on problems many language students face in developing advanced proficiency in an L2. It adds to the growing body of research into the connection between greater working memory (WM) capacity and L2 development, by investigating correlations between WM and development of L2 English questions in an immersion setting. The book details two longitudinal studies tracking 43 instructed Chinese speakers of English during a year's postgraduate study at universities in the UK. Improvements in oral and written data showed evidence of correlations between WM and L2 development. However, analysis of the data concludes that a year's immersion appears to favour processing existing grammatical knowledge rather than trigger acquisition of new grammatical knowledge, even for those with greater WM. This book will be useful for teachers and students of linguistics, interested in both generative and cognitive studies of SLA, as well as providing an accessible insight for classroom language teachers into the many issues affecting second language development for their students.

344 pages, Paperback

Published June 22, 2010

About the author

Clare Wright is an historian who has worked as a political speechwriter, university lecturer, historical consultant and radio and television broadcaster. Her first book, 'Beyond the Ladies Lounge: Australia’s Female Publicans', garnered both critical and popular acclaim and her second, 'The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka', won the 2014 Stella Prize.

She researched, wrote and presented the ABC TV documentary Utopia Girls and is the co-writer of the four-part series The War That Changed Us which screened on ABC1.