Working Memory in the Acquisition of Vocabulary and Syntax: Putting Language in Good Order

This paper argues that working memory is heavily involved in language acquisition as (a) a major part of language lear ning is the learning of sequences, (b) working memory allow s short-term maintenance of sequence information, and (c) short-term rehearsa l of sequences promotes the consolidation of long-term memories of language sequences. It ® rst review s evidence supporting this position. Next it presents an experiment that demonstrates that subjects encouraged to rehearse foreign language (FL) utterances are be tter than both silent controls and subjects who are prevented from rehearsal by articulatory suppression at (a) lear ning to comprehend and translate FL words and phrases, (b) explicit metalinguistic knowledge of the detailed content of g rammatical regularities, (c) acquisition of the FL forms of words and phrases, (d) accuracy in FL pronunciation, and (e) some aspects of productive (but not receptive) g rammatical ̄ uency and accuracy. F inally, it describes possible mechanisms underlying these e ffects.