Extending previous research that has examined the relationship between long-term memory and second language (L2) development with a primary focus on accuracy in L2 outcomes, the current study explores the relationship between declarative and procedural memory and accuracy and automatization during L2 practice. Adult English native speakers had learned an artificial language over two weeks (Morgan-Short, Faretta-Stutenberg, Brill-Schuetz, Carpenter & Wong, 2014), producing four sessions of practice data that had not been analyzed previously. Mixed-effects models analyses revealed that declarative memory was positively related to accuracy during comprehension practice. No other relationships were evidenced for accuracy. For automatization, measured by the coefficient of variation (Segalowitz, 2010), the model revealed a positive relationship with procedural memory that became stronger over practice for learners with higher declarative memory but weaker for learners with lower declarative memory. These results provide further insight into the role that long-term memory plays during L2 development.
A study with 40 L1 Italian 8-9 year old children and its replication with 36 L1 Italian adults investigated the role of declarative and procedural learning ability in the early stages of language learning.The studies investigated: (1) the extent to which memory-related abilities predicted L2 learning of form-meaning mapping between syntax and thematic interpretation, word order and case marking; and (2) the nature of the acquired L2 knowledge in terms of the implicit/explicit distinction.Deploying a computer game in incidental instruction conditions, the participants were aurally trained in the artificial language BrocantoJ over three sessions. Standardized memory tasks, vocabulary learning ability, and an alternating serial reaction time task provided measures of visual/verbal declarative and procedural learning ability. Language learning was assessed via a measure of comprehension during practice and a grammaticality judgment test.Generalized mixed-effects models fitted to both experimental datasets revealed that, although adults attained higher accuracy levels and were faster learners compared to children, the two groups did not differ qualitatively in what they learned. However, by the end of the experiment, adults displayed higher explicit knowledge of syntactic and semantic regularities. During practice, declarative learning ability predicted accuracy in both groups, but procedural learning ability became an increasingly stronger predictor of L2 comprehension only in children. The role of procedural learning ability emerged again only in the child grammaticality judgment test dataset, where it was a statistically significant predictor of learning of word order. In the practice data declarative learning ability and vocabulary learning ability interacted negatively with procedural learning ability in children, whereas declarative learning ability interacted positively with procedural learning ability in adults. Moreover, the positive interaction in adults only obtained for a subset of practice stimuli, i.e. sentences where the processing of linking between morphosyntax and thematic interpretation was required. Overall, the findings support age-related differences and linguistic target differences in the way abilities related to long-term memory predict language learning.
This study examined the role of child cognitive abilities for procedural and declarative learning in the earliest stages of second language (L2) exposure. In the context of a computer game, 53 first language Italian monolingual children were aurally trained in a novel miniature language over 3 consecutive days. A mixed effects model analysis of the relationship between cognitive predictors and outcomes in morphosyntax measured via a grammaticality judgment test (GJT) was performed. Relative to adults trained in the same paradigm, children with higher procedural learning ability (measured via an alternate serial reaction time task) showed significantly better learning of word order, although the effect size was small. Modeling accuracy in online sentence comprehension during the game also evidenced that higher procedural learning ability was positively associated with significantly better outcomes as practice progressed. By contrast, a composite measure of verbal and visual declarative learning ability did not predict L2 outcomes in either the GJT or the online measure.
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