The Role of Forced Output and Working Memory Capacity in Vocabulary Acquisition

The study examined how two types of forced output methods (sentence generating and story writing) affect vocabulary acquisition of Korean EFL learners. To this end, 75 undergraduate students participated in the study who responded to a battery of tests (a pretest, immediate and delayed post-tests). Two major findings were observed. First, participants in the story writing condition consistently outperformed those in the other two conditions, although the mean differences among the groups did not reach statistical significance. This finding lends support to the theory of levels of processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972). Second, unexpectedly, data analysis revealed no statistically significant relationship between working memory and vocabulary acquisition. The findings have important bearings on Korean EFL pedagogy.