The Effects Of Working Memory Capacity And Key Visuals On L2 Learners’ Listening Comprehension

L2 listening comprehension, as one of the most important skills of second language acquisition, has attracted considerable attention of language researchers. Most previous studies have explored the effects of working memory on L2 listening comprehension; whereas little research has been conducted on how the effects of working memory are influenced with or without the presence of key visuals. Thus, this study aims to explore the effects of the working memory capacity and key visuals on L2 learners’ listening comprehension. Specifically, it addresses the following research questions:1. Is there any significant effect of working memory capacity on EFL learners’ listening comprehension?2. Is there any significant effect of key visuals on EFL learners’ listening comprehension?3. Does the effect of key visuals on EFL learners’ listening comprehension vary according to working memory capacity?The present study was a 2(key visuals)×3(working memory capacity) two-way ANOVA design. The 90 second-year non-English major subjects, whose language proficiency was at the same level, were from three intact classes in a university of technology in China. The subjects were divided into low working memory capacity group, medium working memory capacity group and high working memory capacity group based on their performance in working memory test. It was measured in terms of information processing and information storage by a Chinese computerized listening span test(LST) adapted from the version made by Daneman and Carpenter(2009). The subjects were divided into two groups, i.e., the group provided with key visuals and the group without the presence of key visuals. L2 learners’ listening comprehension was measured by their scores of the English listening comprehension tests. The three passages of the listening comprehension tests were selected from the previous CET-4 examinations. Recall protocol test and sentence verification test were used to gauge the English listening comprehension performance.A series of two-way ANOVA was conducted with the data in the study. The major findings are as follows:1. Working memory capacity has a significant effect on L2 learners’ listening comprehension both in recall protocol test and sentence verification test. The results indicate that L2 learners with high working memory capacity perform better in recall protocol test and SVT than those with low working memory capacity and medium working memory.2. Key visuals have a significant effect on L2 learners’ listening comprehension. The results also show that the three working memory capacity groups have improved with the aid of key visuals on listening comprehension. In addition, low working memory capacity group makes more progress than medium working memory capacity group and high working memory capacity group.3. There is a significant interaction effect between working memory capacity and key visuals on L2 learners’ listening comprehension in terms of sentence verification test. However, there is no significant interaction effect between working memory capacity and key visuals on L2 learners’ listening comprehension in terms of recall protocol test. These results indicate that the background knowledge provided by the key visuals inhibits the role of working memory capacity in L2 listening performance. The participants with low working memory capacity can make better use of the key visuals than those with higher working memory capacity to improve their performance in the sentence verification task.To sum up, L2 learners’ listening comprehension is significantly affected by working memory capacity, and key visuals can decrease the role of working memory capacity in L2 listening comprehension. These results give support to both working memory capacity theory and schema theory. This study also has important pedagogical implications. Though working memory capacity cannot be manipulated or changed, teachers can utilize some techniques and design some teaching programs, such as the presence of key visuals to unburden the learners’ working memory capacity and perform better in listening comprehension tasks.