The Effect Of Working Memory Capacity And Task Complexity On Reading Comprehension For Chinese College EFL Learners

As one of the most important skills in second language acquisition,second language reading comprehension has attracted the attention of language researchers.Reading comprehension is a cognitive process.Predecessors have mostly explored the impact of working memory on second language reading comprehension,or adjusted task complexity in an appropriate way to promote learners’ reading ability.However,they didn’t take into account the individual differences of second language learners when studying task complexity.Given this,the goal of this study is to see how task complexity and working memory capacity affect second language reading abilities.The research questions are as follows:(1)Is there any significant effect of working memory capacity on reading comprehension for Chinese college EFL learners?(2)Is there any significant effect of task complexity manipulated along the “+/-single task”dimension on reading comprehension for Chinese college EFL learners?(3)Is there any interactional effect between working memory capacity and task complexity on reading comprehension for Chinese college EFL learners?In this study,42 freshmen majoring in intelligent mining in Taiyuan University of technology were selected as subjects to participate in this experiment.Their English proficiency was upper-intermediate.According to the test results of working memory capacity,the subjects were divided into the low working memory capacity group and the high working memory capacity group.The reading span test mainly measures two aspects: information processing ability and information storage ability.In this study,task complexity is a between-group variable.The subjects were separated into two groups based on their working memory capacity test results: poor working memory capacity and high working memory capacity.The reading span exam primarily assesses two abilities: information processing and information storage.Task complexity is a between-group variable in this study.Two tasks with different instructions were assigned to participants: single task and dual task.Different task instructions were utilized to guide students’ attention in classroom experiments.Reading comprehension in a second language was assessed by using the subjects’ scores on a reading comprehension exam.The materials for reading comprehension are from the CET-4.Following the experiment,the researchers sorted out the gathered original data and ran independent sample t-test and two-way ANOVA by using the statistical software SPSS17.0,getting the following conclusions:To begin with,working memory capacity,as a crucial cognitive element,has a considerable impact on EFL learners’ reading comprehension abilities.The results imply that EFL learners with high working memory capacity do better than those with low working memory capacity in multiple-choice tests and task-based reading comprehension tests.Individual differences in working memory are thus one of the elements that contribute to variances in EFL learners’ reading comprehension abilities.Second,task complexity affects EFL learners’ reading comprehension in multiple-choice tests but not in task-based reading comprehension tests.The statistics for the multiple-choice test demonstrate a significant difference in performance between the two groups.Subjects who are given a simple task(+single task)do better than those who are given a difficult assignment(+dual task).As a result,task complexity affects EFL students’ reading comprehension.Last but not least,in terms of multiple-choice tests,there is a strong interaction impact between working memory capacity and task complexity on EFL learners’ reading comprehension.On a task-based reading comprehension exam,however,there is no significant interaction.These findings show that a single task reduces the function of working memory in second language reading comprehension.For those with low working memory capacity,we can focus on guiding learners’ attention resources by arranging a single task,so as to improve their reading comprehension achievements.In conclusion,the results show that individual differences in working memory capacity and task complexity respectively play an important role in second language reading comprehension,and there is a significant interaction effect between them on EFL learners’ reading comprehension.The experimental results not only support the working memory theory but also partially prove Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis and Skehan’s Limited Attentional Capability Model.This study provides references for English teaching and learning,and has many implications for further empirical research in the future.