NONWORD SPAN AS A UNIQUE PREDICTOR OF 2ND-LANGUAGE VOCABULARY LEARNING

This study attempts to extend the relationship between phonological me mory and word acquisition to the experimental learning of second-langu age vocabulary. Nonword span was used to measure phonological memory a nd was found to be generally predictive of the number of trials needed for acquiring certain English (second-language) new words for a group of Hong Kong 7th graders. This relationship, however, was preserved o nly in those whose English vocabulary size was below the group median. It was concluded that phonological memory plays a part in second-lang uage word learning, and its effect interacts with the learner's long-t erm knowledge in that language.