Working memory and the speech production of English-speaking learners of Japanese

Abstract This study explored the impact of working memory (WM) on speech production among L2 Japanese learners. Previous empirical research has shown that WM plays a significant role in L2 Japanese speech production. The current study focused exclusively on data from native English speakers who were enrolled in Japanese language programs at universities in North America. Statistical analyses revealed a significant correlation between performance on the Japanese Speaking Span Test and the learners’ ability to construct syntactically complex sentences in Japanese. The findings suggest that learners with higher working memory capacity are not only more capable of producing syntactically complex sentences, but also tend to maintain greater grammatical accuracy in their spoken Japanese.