The effects of working memory and directionality on sentence build-up drill performance
Li, You
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/97708
Description
Title
The effects of working memory and directionality on sentence build-up drill performance
Author(s)
Li, You
Issue Date
2017-04-19
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Packard, Jerome
Department of Study
E. Asian Languages & Cultures
Discipline
E Asian Languages & Cultures
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
Sentence build-up drill
Working memory
Second language acquisition (SLA)
Abstract
This study investigated the role of working memory (WM) and input direction in the use of sentence build-up drills (SBD). Thirty Chinese L2 speakers participated in the experiment, which consisted of a SBD test, a R-span test, and a language background questionnaire. The results indicate that the backward input direction has several advantages over the forward direction. First, the backward direction elicited repetitions with fewer total and whole-sentence errors. Second, it also extended the tipping point, which was defined as the serial position of the word at which participants started making their first errors. Finally, there was an interaction effect between WM and input direction, indicating that participants with different WM levels performed equally well in the backward direction, whereas the low-WM group made significantly more errors in the forward direction, compared to their high-WM counterparts. Based upon these results, we argue that the backward build-up is more effective, and that it constitutes a better way to conduct sentence build-up repetition drills in the classroom.
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