Exploring The Effect Of Dictation On Middle School EFL Learners' Working Memory Development

Working memory(WM)is defined as the immediate memory processes involved in the simultaneous storage and processing of information in real-time.Recently,a growing body of literature shows that WM is a strong factor contributing to the difference of performance in various tasks in second language acquisition(SLA).Given the correlation between WM and SLA development,it can be assumed that WM may be enhanced by some tasks in SLA reversely,which is rarely explored in the field of SLA.Therefore,this study investigates the effect of dictation on middle school EFL learners' working memory development and what factor in the process of dictation underpins such enhancement in working memory development.The results demonstrate that participants exhibit significantly improved performance on English WM span test after the first week dictation training,while their Chinese WM span did not show such improvement.Both low-span participants with more gains and high-span participants with less gains reported strategy use more frequently than low-span participants with less gains,including top-down strategy,bottom-up strategy,metacognitive strategy,and technical strategies.The improvement indicates a clear effectiveness of dictation training in English classroom on L2 WM development and of using processing strategies to impact English WM span.