2018/2019
Working memory as language aptitude: The phonological/ executive model
Language aptitude:Advancing theory, testing, research and practice(1st Edition), UK:Routledge, 2019: 187-214
| Author(s) | Zhisheng (Edward) Wen |
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| Summary | In the post–Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT; Carroll & Sapon,1959/2002) era, recurring calls to incorporate the cognitive construct of working memory (WM) as a central component of language aptitude have garnered the most prominence and become most widely accepted (e.g., McLaughlin, 1995; Miyake & Friedman, 1998; Sawyer & Ranta, 2001; Robinson, 2001, 2005;Wen & Skehan, 2011; Skehan, 1998, 2012; Kormos, 2013; Wen, 2012a, 2016; Wen, Biedro.,& Skehan, 2017). Since its inception in the mid-1990s, the proposal of ‘WM as language aptitude’ has now undergone some over 20 years in the making, and it has come of age to re-examine its rationale and underlying theoretical assumptions, its major arguments, and the supporting empirical evidence, as well as sorting out some remaining issues and looming caveats. These related issues constitute the major themes of this current chapter.
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