A Study Of The Effects Of Phonological Loop On Second Language Reading Comprehension

As one of the most important components of working memory model, the research ofphonological loop has undergone a continuous process of development. In the last fewdecades, the relationship between phonological loop and reading comprehension has beenhighly valued, and gradually became the focus of recent study. This study examines theeffects of phonological store in unattended speech paradigm condition and articulatoryrehearsal in articulatory suppression paradigm condition on second language readingcomprehension, and further reveals the effects of phonological loop on second languagereading comprehension process. To be specific, this research mainly addresses thefollowing two aspects. First, the effects of articulatory rehearsal device of phonologicalloop on second language reading comprehension. Second, the effects of phonological storedevice of phonological loop on second language reading comprehension.In order to answer these questions, two experiments are designed to examine theeffects of phonological loop on second language reading comprehension. The experimentswere implemented among the third grade English major college students from NingboUniversity. Following the articulatory suppression paradigm of Baddeley (1996), the firstexperiment examines the different reading effects between normal reading condition andarticulatory suppression condition by combining error disruption and word frequency, andfurther verifies the effects of articulatory rehearsal device of phonological loop on secondlanguage reading comprehension. The results of the experiment support the contention thatarticulatory rehearsal device of phonological loop does affect second language readingcomprehension, since the subjects’ response time is longer in articulatory suppressionreading condition than in normal reading condition, especially for the homophone passages.Meanwhile, the subjects’ response accuracy of correct word passages and spelling controlword passages in articulatory suppression reading condition is lower than in normalreading condition, but the response accuracy of homophone passages is higher in articulatory suppression condition than in normal reading condition. Following theunattended speech paradigm of Coltheart (1990), the second experiment examines thedifferent reading effects between normal reading condition and unattended speechcondition by combining error disruption and word frequency, and further verifies theeffects of phonological store device of phonological loop on second language readingcomprehension. With response time and response accuracy as analysis index, the results ofexperiment two are in consistent with those of experiment one, specifically, the subjects’response accuracy of correct word passages and spelling control word passages is lower inunattended speech reading condition and the subjects’ response time is longer than innormal reading condition, which indicates that the phonological store device ofphonological loop also affect second language reading comprehension.This study also provides some theoretical and pedagogical implications. Firstly, fromthe theoretical perspective, the study reveals the relationship between phonological loopand reading comprehension in second language reading process, which in turn helps toenrich and develop the research of the relationship between phonological loop and readingcomprehension. Secondly, from the aspect of pedagogy, this finding has importantimplications for the second language reading teaching as it verifies that compared withspelling, pronunciation plays a relatively more important role in second language reading.