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Chapter 10. Working memory capacity and narrative task performance

  • Judit Kormos and Anna Trebits
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Second Language Task Complexity
This chapter is in the book Second Language Task Complexity

Abstract

This study investigated the link between working memory capacity and narrative task performance. The participants of the study were 44 secondary school students in their second academic year of an English-Hungarian bilingual educational program in Hungary. The backward digit span test was used to measure participants’ working memory capacity. The students performed two narrative tasks of different degrees of cognitive complexity: one with a given story line and another where the content of the narrative had to be invented. Four global aspects performance were measured: fluency, lexical complexity, accuracy, and grammatical complexity. Task-specific measures included the ratio of correctly used relative clauses, verbs, and past-tense verbs, as well as the ratio of relative clauses compared to the total number of clauses. Results showed that the effect of working memory capacity on students’ narrative performance was limited to one of the tasks, which involved narrating a picture story. Further results indicated that the linguistic variables that differentiated students with different working memory spans were the average length of clauses and the subordination ratio. These findings suggest that high working memory capacity might allow students to produce narratives with high clausal complexity, but it might not be conducive to directing learners’ attention to specific dimensions of the task such as subordination.

Abstract

This study investigated the link between working memory capacity and narrative task performance. The participants of the study were 44 secondary school students in their second academic year of an English-Hungarian bilingual educational program in Hungary. The backward digit span test was used to measure participants’ working memory capacity. The students performed two narrative tasks of different degrees of cognitive complexity: one with a given story line and another where the content of the narrative had to be invented. Four global aspects performance were measured: fluency, lexical complexity, accuracy, and grammatical complexity. Task-specific measures included the ratio of correctly used relative clauses, verbs, and past-tense verbs, as well as the ratio of relative clauses compared to the total number of clauses. Results showed that the effect of working memory capacity on students’ narrative performance was limited to one of the tasks, which involved narrating a picture story. Further results indicated that the linguistic variables that differentiated students with different working memory spans were the average length of clauses and the subordination ratio. These findings suggest that high working memory capacity might allow students to produce narratives with high clausal complexity, but it might not be conducive to directing learners’ attention to specific dimensions of the task such as subordination.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Acknowledgements ix
  5. Series editors’ preface to Volume 2 xi
  6. Part 1. Cognition, task complexity, language learning, and performance
  7. Chapter 1. Second language task complexity, the Cognition Hypothesis, language learning, and performance 3
  8. Chapter 2. Speech production and the Cognition Hypothesis 39
  9. Chapter 3. Corpus-driven methods for assessing accuracy in learner production 61
  10. Part 2. Researching the effects of task complexity across task types and modes of L2 performance
  11. Chapter 4. Task complexity and linguistic performance in L2 writing and speaking 91
  12. Chapter 5. Manipulating task complexity across task types and modes 105
  13. Part 3. Researching the effects of task complexity on L2 interaction, modified output, and uptake
  14. Chapter 6. Effects of task complexity and interaction on L2 performance 141
  15. Chapter 7. Task complexity, modified output, and L2 development in learner–learner interaction 175
  16. Chapter 8. Task complexity, uptake of recasts, and L2 development 203
  17. Part 4. Researching the influence of learner characteristics and perceptions on simple and complex L2 task performance
  18. Chapter 9. When individual differences come into play 239
  19. Chapter 10. Working memory capacity and narrative task performance 267
  20. Chapter 11. Task complexity, language anxiety, and the development of the simple past 287
  21. Chapter 12. Examining the influence of intentional reasoning demands on learner perceptions of task difficulty and L2 monologic speech 307
  22. Author index 331
  23. Subject index 337
https://doi.org/10.1075/tblt.2.17ch10

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Acknowledgements ix
  5. Series editors’ preface to Volume 2 xi
  6. Part 1. Cognition, task complexity, language learning, and performance
  7. Chapter 1. Second language task complexity, the Cognition Hypothesis, language learning, and performance 3
  8. Chapter 2. Speech production and the Cognition Hypothesis 39
  9. Chapter 3. Corpus-driven methods for assessing accuracy in learner production 61
  10. Part 2. Researching the effects of task complexity across task types and modes of L2 performance
  11. Chapter 4. Task complexity and linguistic performance in L2 writing and speaking 91
  12. Chapter 5. Manipulating task complexity across task types and modes 105
  13. Part 3. Researching the effects of task complexity on L2 interaction, modified output, and uptake
  14. Chapter 6. Effects of task complexity and interaction on L2 performance 141
  15. Chapter 7. Task complexity, modified output, and L2 development in learner–learner interaction 175
  16. Chapter 8. Task complexity, uptake of recasts, and L2 development 203
  17. Part 4. Researching the influence of learner characteristics and perceptions on simple and complex L2 task performance
  18. Chapter 9. When individual differences come into play 239
  19. Chapter 10. Working memory capacity and narrative task performance 267
  20. Chapter 11. Task complexity, language anxiety, and the development of the simple past 287
  21. Chapter 12. Examining the influence of intentional reasoning demands on learner perceptions of task difficulty and L2 monologic speech 307
  22. Author index 331
  23. Subject index 337
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