ABSTRACT
Recent research has stressed the importance of phonological short-term memory (PSTM) in children’s first (L1) and second (L2) language acquisition (Baddeley, Gathercole, & Papagno, 1998). Indeed, Baddeley et al. (1998) have called PSTM a language learning device. Although PSTM has also been shown to be implicated in L2 learning by adults, adult studies have tended to look at experimental word learning in the laboratory over one or two sessions (see Baddeley et al., 1998). The goal of the present study was to examine the role of PSTM in other areas of L2 learning, namely gains in oral proficiency and fluency made by adults outside the laboratory and over a longer time period.
