Links between working memory, phonological awareness, and language learning

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between working memory, phonological awareness and developing language skills in a population of children growing up in a multilingual context involving the three languages of Luxembourgish, German, and French. A sample of 122 children from Luxembourg aged 5 to 7 years participated in the study, completing assessments of phonological short-term memory, complex working memory, phonological awareness, native and foreign vocabulary knowledge, language comprehension and reading. The data were best characterized by a model of working memory that consisted of two related but separable components - corresponding to phonological short-term memory and the central executive - that were distinct from phonological awareness. Language abilities in both the native and foreign languages were more strongly associated with phonological short-term memory than other factors in the model. The findings lend strong support to the proposal that vocabulary learning in particular is mediated, in part at least, by phonological short-term memory.