Working memory and planning time as predictors of fluency and accuracy
Working memory, which accounts for the ability to process information in the face of interference, is critical to
second language acquisition (SLA) and use. The interaction of working memory capacity (WMC) with specific pedagogical
interventions is a logical place for empirical SLA research, both to examine the cognitive processes underpinning second language
performance and to identify instructional treatments that may serve learners differently based on their WMC. This study considers
WMC along with two different types of pre-task planning time (guided and unguided) as predictors of the attempted accuracy and
fluency of learners’ discourse. Seventy-two intermediate ESL students from seven classes at a community college participated by
completing two different working memory span tasks, as well as two different “There-and-Then” oral story-telling tasks. The
treatment condition of the story-telling tasks was manipulated so that learners’ performance could be considered in terms of
provision of pre-task planning (+/− planning), type of planning (guided vs. unguided), and order of planning (planning first or
planning second). Task order had a clear effect on learners’ production, regardless of the provision of planning time. Guided
planning time promoted a focus on attempted accuracy and unguided planning time fostered fluency. Finally, this study indicates
that task conditions can affect high- and low-WMC learners in different ways: the former are more likely to comply with complex
story-telling instructions, requiring them to focus on grammatical form at the expense of fluency, whereas the latter are less
likely to comply with the same instructions.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 1.1Task demands, cognition, and L2 performance
- 1.2Working memory and SLA
- 1.3Planning and SLA
- 1.4The present study
- 2.Method
- 2.1Participants
- 2.2Instruments
- 2.3Procedures
- 3.Results
- 3.1Descriptive statistics and initial analyses of variables
- 3.2Planning order/conditions and WMC: Initial analyses
- 3.3The order of the provision of planning time
- 3.3.1Descriptive statistics split by planning order
- 3.3.2Between-groups data analysis without the influence of task repetition
- 3.3.3Repeated measures analyses: No planning first
- 3.3.4Repeated measures analyses for participants who began with planning time
- 3.4Summary of relationship among variables and planning conditions
- 3.5Working memory
- 4.Discussion
- 4.1The influence of task order on learner fluency
- 4.2Guided and unguided planning as predictors of fluency
- 4.3Guided and unguided planning as predictors of attempted accuracy
- 4.4WMC and learner production
- 4.5Synthesis of results by planning condition and WMC
- 5.Conclusion
-
Notes
-
References
-
Appendix
References (56)
References
Atkins, S. M., Harbison, J. I., Bunting, M. F., Teubner-Rhodes, S., & Dougherty, M. R. (2009). Measuring working memory with automated block span and automated letter-number sequencing. Poster presented at the 50th Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Boston, MA.
Baddeley, A. & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In G. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 8, pp. 47–90). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Conway, A. R. A., Kane, M. J., Bunting, M. F., Hambrick, D. Z., Wilhelm, O., & Engle, R. W. (2005). Working memory span tasks: A methodological review and user’s guide. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12(5), 769–786.
Cowan, N. (1999). An embedded-processes model of working memory. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 62–101). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crookes, G. (1989). Planning and interlanguage variation. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 11, 367–383.
Daneman, M. & Carpenter, P. (1980). Individual differences in working memory and reading. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19, 450–466.
Daneman, M. & Green, I. (1986). Individual differences in comprehending and producing words in context. Journal of Memory and Language, 25(1), 1–18.
DeKeyser, R. M. (2009). Cognitive-psychological processes in second language learning. In. M. Long & C. Doughty (Eds.), The handbook of language teaching (pp. 119–138). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
DeKeyser, R. M. & Koeth, J. (2011). Cognitive aptitudes for second language learning. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (Vol. 2, pp. 395–406). London: Routledge.
Ellis, R. (2009). The differential effects of three types of task planning on the fluency, complexity, and accuracy in L2 oral
production. Applied Linguistics, 30(4), 474–509.
Ellis, R. (2012). Language teaching research and language pedagogy. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
Engle, R. W., Kane, M. J., & Tuholski, S. W. (1999). Individual differences in WMC and what they tell us about controlled attention, general fluid intelligence, and
functions of the prefrontal cortex. In A. Miyake & P. Shah (Eds.), Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control (pp. 102–134). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Engle, R. W. (2010). Role of working memory capacity in cognitive control. Current Anthropology, 51(s1), 17–26.
Gilabert, R. (2007a). The simultaneous manipulation of task complexity along planning time and (+/− Here and Now): Effects on L2 oral
production. In M. Garcia-Mayo (Ed.), Investigating tasks in formal language learning (pp. 44–68). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Gilabert, R. (2007b). Effects of manipulating task complexity on self-repairs during L2 oral production. IRAL, 45, 215–240.
Gilabert, R., & Muñoz, C. (2010). Differences in attainment and performance of a second language: The role of WMC. International Journal of English Studies, 10(1), 19–42.
Guará-Tavares, M. G. (2009). The relationship among pre-task planning, working memory capacity, and L2 speech performance: A pilot
study. Linguagem & Ensino, 12(1), 165–194.
Harrington, M., & Sawyer, M. (1992). L2 WMC and L2 reading skill. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 25–38.
Juffs, A., & Harrington, M. (2011). Aspects of working memory in L2 learning. Language Teaching: Reviews and Studies, 42(2), 137–166.
Kane, M. J., Bleckley, M. K., Conway, A. R. A., & Engle, R. W. (2001). A controlled-attention view of working memory capacity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 169–183.
Kane, M. J., Conway, A. R. A., Hambrick, D. Z., & Engle, R. W. (2007). Variation in WMC as variation in executive attention & control. In A. R. A. Conway, C. Jarrold, M. J. Kane, A. Miyake & J. N. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working memory (pp. 21–48). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kormos, J., & Sáfár, A. (2008). Phonological short-term memory, working memory and foreign language performance in intensive language
learning. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11(2), 261–271.
Linck, J. A., Osthus, P., Koeth, J. T., & Bunting, M. F. (2014). Working memory and second language comprehension and production: A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 861–883.
Mackey, A., Philp, J., Egi, T., Fujii, A., & Tatsumi, T. (2002). Individual differences in working memory, noticing of interactional feedback, and L2 development. In P. Robinson (Ed.) Individual differences and instructed second language learning (pp. 181–209). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Mehnert, U. (1998). The effects of different lengths of time for planning on second language performance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 20, 52–83.
Mochizuki, N., & Ortega, L. (2008). Balancing communication and grammar in beginning‐level foreign language classrooms: A study of guided planning and
relativization. Language Teaching Research, 12(1), 11‐37.
Nielson, K. (2014). Can planning time compensate for individual differences in working memory capacity? Language Teaching Research, 18(3), 272–293.
Ortega, L. (1999). Planning and focus on form in L2 oral performance. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 21, 109–148.
Park, S. (2010). The influence of pretask instructions and pretask planning on focus on form during Korean EFL task-based
interaction. Language Teaching Research, 14(1), 9–26.
Payne, J. & Ross, B. (2005). Synchronous CMC, working memory, and L2 proficiency development. Language Learning and Technology, 19(3), 35–54.
Payne, J. & Whitney, P. (2002). Developing L2 oral proficiency through synchronous CMC: Output, working memory, and interlanguage
development. CALICO Journal, 20, 7–32.
Rai, M. K., Loschky, L. C., Harris, R. J., Peck, N. R. & Cook, L. G. (2011). Effects of stress and working memory capacity on foreign language readers’ inferential processing during
comprehension. Language Learning, Language Learning, 61(1), 187–218.
Robinson, P. (1995a). Attention, memory, and the “noticing” hypothesis. Language Learning, 45(2), 281–331.
Robinson, P. (1995b). Task complexity and second language narrative discourse. Language Learning, 45(1), 99–140.
Robinson, P. (2001). Task complexity, cognitive resources, and syllabus design: A triadic framework for investigating task influences on
SLA. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 287–318). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Robinson, P. (2005a). Aptitude and second language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 25, 46–73.
Robinson, P. (2005b). Cognitive complexity and task sequencing: Studies in a componential framework for second language task
design. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 43, 1–32.
Robinson, P. (2007). Aptitudes, abilities, contexts, and practice. In R. DeKeyser (Ed.), Practice in a second language. Perspectives from applied linguistics and cognitive psychology (pp. 256–286). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Skehan, P. (1998). A cognitive approach to language learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Skehan, P. (2002). Theorising and updating aptitude. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Individual differences and instructed second language learning (pp. 69–93). Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Skehan, P. (2009). Modelling second language performance: Integrating complexity, accuracy, flueny, and lexis. Applied Linguistics, 30(4), 510–532.
Skehan, P. & P. Foster. (1997). Task type and task processing conditions as influences on foreign language performance. Language Teaching Research, 1(3), 185–211.
Skehan, P., & Foster, P. (1999). The influence of task structure and processing conditions on narrative retellings. Language Learning, 49, 93–120.
Skehan, P. & Foster, P. (2001). Cognition and tasks. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 183–205). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Sprenger, A. M., Atkins, S. M., Colflesh, G. J. H., Briner, T. L., Buchanan, J. B., Chavis, S. E., Chen, S., Iannuzzi, G. L., Kashtelyan, V., Dowling, E., Bolger, D. J., Bunting, M. F., & Dougherty, M. R. (in preparation). A four-dimensional video game for measuring cognitive ability.
Sunderman, G. & Kroll, J. (2009). When study-abroad experience fails to deliver: The internal resources threshold effect. Applied Psycholinguistics, 30, 70–99.
Unsworth, N. & Engle, R. (2007). The nature of individual differences in working memory capacity: Active maintenance in primary memory and
controlled search from secondary memory. Psychological Review, 114, 104–132.
Wigglesworth, G. (1997). An investigation of planning time and proficiency level on oral test discourse. Language Testing, 14(1), 85–106.
Williams, J. (2011). Working memory and SLA. In S. Gass & A. Mackey (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 427–441). New York, NY: Routledge.
Yuan, F., & Ellis, R. (2003). The effects of pre-task planning and on-line planning on fluency, complexity and accuracy in L2 monologic oral
production. Applied Linguistics, 24, 1–27.