Exploring the Relationship Between Working Memory and Implicit Learning of English

Working memory (WM) is the mental process of temporarily storing and manipulating information at the same time in the on-going processing (Juffs & Harrington, 2011 ). Assuming that WM affects individual difference in learning (Baddeley, 2003), this paper investigated the effect of implicit learning and its relationship with working memory. Particularly, this study examined the influence of WM on the learners' awareness level (i.e., no-awareness, perception, noticing, and understanding) during implicit learning and the gains of grammar knowledge. Twenty-four Korean EFL high school students participated in implicit learning while thinking aloud and took a WM test and a grammar test. The results showed that the grammar accuracy of the learners increased significantly through implicit learning. However, the correlation between WM scores and grammar scores was not significant. Yet, when the learners' awareness level during implicit learning was considered, overall the aware group tended to show higher gains than the unaware group, indicating the role of WM in implicit learning.