Processing Relative Clauses and Working Memory in L2 Japanese

Abstract

The first language processing studies have shown that working memory (WM) plays an important role in many aspects of reading performance. This study investigates whether L2 learners' processing of Japanese relative clauses (RCs) is influenced by their WM capacity. Two processing-based hypotheses, Dependency Locality Theory (e.g., Gibson, 1998) and Structural Distance Hypothesis (e.g., O'Grady, 1987), are evaluated with respect to the performances of L2 learners' processing Japanese subject-gap and object-gap RC sentences in an online reading experiment. L2 learner participants were divided into two groups based on their WM capacity measured by a Reading Span Test (RST). L2 RST Low and High groups were not different in comprehension accuracy rates of object-gap RC sentences, but numerically different in subject-gap RC sentences. The online reading results support the DLT, but group differences were found in different regions of the RC sentences in the residual reading times. These findings suggest that one's WM capacity also affects RC processing in L2.