A Study Of Relationship Between Bilingual Working Memory Span And Second Language Listening Comprehension

Working memory is,in short,a memory system needed to process current information.Working memory has always been an important research object in the field of cognitive psychology.Because the abstract of working memory can not be measured directly,psychologists use working memory span,which is a quantifiable index of memory capacity,to study working memory.The bilingual memory span in this study refers to the range of memory measured using native materials,and the range of memory measured using second language materials.Listening comprehension is an important part of five basic skills in listening,speaking,reading,writing and translating in second language acquisition.The two language used in this study was Japanese,and the subjects did not teach themselves Japanese before they were taught.The two language listening comprehension is essentially a cognitive behavior,so this study studies the range of working memory and the ability of Japanese listening comprehension to explore the relationship between them.In the study of College Japanese majors,the subjects were divided into three different learning stages: first year,second year,and third year.Using a typical range of numbers as a test material for working memory span;using listening comprehension questions in international Japanese language proficiency tests as materials for listening comprehension.Different from the past,all the materials in this study are phonetic materials,and the memory span is divided into four types: Class A,Chinese-Chinese,B,Japanese-Japanese,C,Japanese-Chinese,D,Chinese-japanese.Participants needed two channels of listening and speaking,namely,the subjects needed to string together the Chinese / Japanese numbers they heard in Chinese or Japanese in a limited order of time.The study found that:(1)a working memory span and working memory span with the grade C class is different;(2)two verbal working memory span(B/C/D task)and listening comprehension scores were significantly related to mother tongue;working memory span(A task)and listening comprehension scores were not significantly correlated;(3)native memory span better than two word memory span;four memory span between the size of A > C=D > B;(4)with Japanese proficiency improved,two language memory effect on listening comprehension is more and more stable;and the native memory span and two language listening to no obvious change of understanding between.