View Content #23483

From http://www.eltresearchbites.com/

 

Anthony Schmidt discusses a recent article by Indrarathne and Kromos, “The role of working memory in processing L2 input: Insights from eye-tracking,” in this recent blog post. Here is Schmidt’s summary of the findings: 

 

• There is a strong relationship between WM and learning a previously unknown grammatical structure

• Task switching may help in explicit learning conditions

• WM played an important role regardless of production (SR) or receptive (GJ)

• WM played a role in all experimental conditions – explicit and implicit

• Learners with high WM and attentional resources have an advantage regardless of instruction type or whether being tested for productive or receptive skills

• Eye-tracking showed that participants paid more attention when explicitly told to do so

• Eye-tracking showed that implicit learning conditions did not produce a lot of attention to target grammar

 

A discussion with one of the article authors yield this practical advice: “In some contexts…this type of differentiation might not be possible. Therefore, teachers should also consider instructional methods that promote learning for everyone, regardless of their cognitive abilities. Our study shows that explicit instruction on novel grammatical constructions is more successful than implicit instruction.”

 

Read the research summary and discussion at http://www.eltresearchbites.com/201707-working-memory-and-implicit-explicit-instruction/