A longitudinal study which investigated the relationship between phonological short-term memory and working memory capacity and the development of L2 grammar competence over the period of 2 years was conducted. Among the four tests of working memory only listening span predicted the slope (i.e. changes over time), although the effect sizes were small.
Working memory plays a significant role in learning L2 grammar (Li, Ellis & Zhu, 2019), however, there is little research into longitudinal effects of phonological short-term memory and working memory capacity on L2 grammar knowledge development (Sagarra, 2017). The paper reports the findings of a longitudinal study which investigated the relationship between phonological short-term memory and working memory capacity and the development of L2 grammar competence over the period of 2 years. The participants were 107 first, second and third year Polish university students, majoring in English as an L2. The phonological short-term memory was measured with the use of the Polish non-word span (PNWSPAN), and a digit span (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R(PL), both of which are simple span tasks. The working memory capacity was measured by means of the Polish listening span test (PLSPAN) and the Polish reading span test (PRSPAN), both of which represent complex tasks. All the tests, except for digit span, were created by the authors and designed for Polish speakers. The grammar competence was assessed with four tests, completed after the first, second, third and fourth semester (6 months apart). The tests contained both receptive and productive tasks, that is: multiple choice, verb form filling, key word paraphrasing and open cloze tasks. The evaluation was based on the accuracy of the answers and the scores were used as a criterion measure. The results reveal that among the four tests of working memory only listening span predicted the slope (i.e. changes over time), although the effect sizes were small.
