The Correlation between the Phonological Short-Term Memory and Vocabulary Acquisition

Abstract

This dissertation aimed to investigate possible relationship between the phonological shortterm memory and vocabulary acquisition within fourth year middle school learners at Fridja Slimane Middle school. The participants were forty learners, twenty girls and twenty boys. Their mean age was 15.10 years (Standard Deviation =1.150). The first aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the phonological short-term memory and vocabulary acquisition. The second aim was to compare the influence exerted by the phonological shortterm memory on both native (Arabic) and foreign (English) vocabulary performance. It was hypothesized that; first, the phonological memory had a significant relationship with vocabulary acquisition; second, the association between the phonological memory and vocabulary acquisition might differ in native vocabulary acquisition compared to foreign vocabulary acquisition. In order to fulfill the aims of this study, a digit span and a non-word repetition tasks were used to measure the phonological short-term memory of the participants. English and Arabic vocabulary tests were used to test the participants’ vocabulary knowledge. After comparing the tests scores, it was noticed that most of the participants with high phonological short-term memory measures outperformed the participants with low phonological short-term memory measures in both the English and the Arabic vocabulary tests. In addition, it was indicated that the degree of the association between the phonological short-term memory and English vocabulary acquisition was higher compared to the degree of the association between the phonological short-term memory and Arabic vocabulary acquisition. The results were consistent with the view that the phonological short-term memory has a significant relationship with both native and foreign vocabulary acquisition. It is suggested for future researchers in this field to work with a larger population and follow an experimental design for better and more accurate findings