Working memory, phonological awareness, and language learning

This study investigated the relationship between working memory, phonological processing 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 between 5 and 7 years, participated in the study, and completed 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 measurement model in which working memory consists of two related yet distinct components – corresponding to phonological short-term memory and a 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 constructs in the model. The findings lend strong support to the proposal that vocabulary learning in particular is mediated in part at least by the phonological loop component of working memory.