{"pk":6936,"title":"Individual Differences in Working Memory Capacity and the Development of L2 Speech Production","subtitle":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the relationship between individual differences in working memory capacity and L2 speech development. Thirty-two undergraduate English as a Foreign Language students participated in this study, which involved two data collection phases, each consisting of a working memory test (the speaking span test) and a speech generation task, with a two-month interval between the two data collections. Participants’ speaking samples were analyzed in terms of fluency, accuracy and complexity. The results show that only lower span individuals demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in working memory capacity and that such improvement was not a function of increased proficiency. In addition, although the speaking span test predicted fluency and complexity in participants’ L2 speech, it was not a good indicator of the development of speech accuracy.","language":"en","license":null,"keywords":[{"word":"Applied Linguistics"}],"section":"Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7tz0f9xw","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Janaina","middle_name":"","last_name":"Weissheimer","name_suffix":"","institution":"Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Mailce","middle_name":"B","last_name":"Mota","name_suffix":"","institution":"Federal University of Santa Catarina","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2010-04-29T09:00:00+02:00","date_accepted":"2010-04-29T09:00:00+02:00","date_published":"2009-12-30T09:00:00+01:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/ial/article/6936/galley/4045/download/"},{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/ial/article/6936/galley/4046/download/"}]}