Short-term Working Memory and Chunking in SLA

Abstract

Abstract-After elaborating the definition of working memory, the relationship between short-term memory and working memory, chunking in SLA and the relationship between short-term memory and chunking, this paper proves the importance of chunking through the experiment: the students' capacity in fast reading, reading in depth, listening and cloze from experimental group was affected by vocabulary depth through learning the theory of chunking and states how to apply chunking to second language acquisition.Index Terms-chunking, short-term memory, working memory, SLA (second language acquisition) I. THE ORIGIN OF WORKING MEMORYThe type of early memory Baddeley stated actually contains a specialized component of LTM but also has some characteristics of STM. This type of memory is named working memory, which is conceptualized as a system that temporarily stores and controls information as we carry out cognitive tasks. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) put forward the evolution of a single short-term memory into working memory.Working memory can be defined as a type of workbench in which new and old information is constantly being changed, integrated, and changed. Working memory disputes the view that STM is only another "box" in the head -a simple station along the way to either being forgotten or transmitted on to LTM -in which information is not actively stored. It suggests that our working memory is coordinating with activity.The idea of working memory also disputes the concept that the capacity of STM is restricted to about 7 items. Baddeley proposes that the span of memory is decided by the speed with which we practise information. Concerning verbal material, he assumed that we have an articulatory loop in which we can retain as much information as we can practice in an unchanging duration. Working memory holds a phonological loop that is a rehearsal circuit which retains inner speech for verbal comprehension. There is also a visuospatial scratchpad that is obliged to practise images and maintain them transiently. These processes are controlled by a central executive, which teams attentional activities and controls responses. The central executive behaves much like a supervisor who determines which issues need attention and which will be neglected. II. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SHORT-TERM AND WORKING MEMORYThe study of short-term memory, the storage of small amounts of information over transient time intervals, constituted a main part of the development of cognitive psychology during the 1960s. The effort to form information-processing models of short-term memory (STM) resulted in some main arguments. Unluckily, solving these issues clearly proved beyond the ability of the methods available at the time, leading to a decrease of interest in STM during the 1970s, and afterwards even to a declaration of its death (Growder, 1982). Nevertheless, as the old idea of STM was losing support, it became integrated within a more complicated framework, working memory (WM), which assumed that the older idea of a unitary store be substi...

The visual memory development technique: A remedial and pre-reading activity to enhance EFL learners’ motivation

“…The study's finding also emphasizes the combining of VM development to reading classes could facilitate learners' reading which was also found in previous research by Fontanini and Tomitch (2009), Oakhill et al (2011), andXu (2016), as their research related learners' performances in reading comprehension to visual and verbal memory skills. This was not restricted to the L1 context, but extended to the ESL/EFL context, as indicated by Fontanini and Tomitch (2009), Juffs (2006), Sachs (2010), andXu (2016). These authors concluded that combining memory skills (MSs) could be an effective method for facilitating learning when reading texts, which increased the ESL/EFL students' motivation.…”

“…Recently, there has been an increase in studies that focus on the impacts of VM on language learning, particularly with regard to reading comprehension (e.g. Alloway and Alloway, 2010;Brady et al, 2011;Fukuda et al, 2010;Isbell et al, 2015;Peng and Fuchs, 2017;Ramaty and Luria, 2018;Tobergte and Curtis, 2013;Xu, 2016;Yelaoshr, 2018). These studies have emphasized that VM helps learners to comprehend texts in English.…”

“…Many researchers have concluded that developing the VM has a strong impact on comprehension skills (e.g. Brady et al, 2011;Isbell et al, 2015;Peng and Fuchs, 2017;Ramaty and Luria, 2018;Xu, 2016;Yelaoshr, 2018).…”