Understanding Second Language Reading and Listening Comprehension: Roles of Working Memory, Inferencing-Making, First Language Ability, and Linguistic Knowledge

Successful comprehension of written and oral discourse involves constructing a coherent mental representation of input (Kintsch, 1998) formed using various skills related to language and general cognition including first language (L1) skills in second language (L2) contexts (Cummins, 1979). This study examines a model of L2 reading and listening comprehension that considers the direct and indirect effects of linguistic knowledge, cognitive skills, and L1 ability in adolescent English as a foreign language (EFL) learners where a comprehensive investigation is lacking. Data were collected from 194 ninth grade EFL Korean students in a girls’ middle school. L2 reading comprehension, L2 listening comprehension, and L2 vocabulary and grammar were measured using a research version of the TOEFL Junior^® Standard test. Working memory capacity was measured using a running span task (Kim, Payant, & Pearson, 2015). Inferencing-making skills were measured using a syllogism test (Segers & Verhoeven, 2016). General L1 ability was based on students’ final examination scores in a Korean language art course administrated at the school. A path analysis was used to examine relationships among variables. Results showed that L2 vocabulary/grammar knowledge was the only component that directly predicted both L2 listening and reading comprehension. This finding indicates the importance of L2 knowledge over other cognitive skills. Working memory, L1-inferencing, and L1 general skills did not have direct effects on L2 reading/listening comprehension but had indirect effects via L2 vocabulary/grammar knowledge. This finding suggests that cognitive skills may lead to better L2 reading and listening comprehension, but only when accompanied with greater L2 knowledge. Finally, the path model explained 73.3% and 72.0% of the variance in L2 reading and listening comprehension, respectively. Overall, this study reports that linguistic knowledge and cognitive skills have direct and indirect relations with comprehension of discourse-level oral and written texts.