작업기억 용량과 L2 숙달도가 한국어 학습자의 형태통사 오류 처리에 미치는 영향

The Effects of Working Memory Capacity and L2 Proficiency on Processing Morphosyntactic Violations in Korean as a Second Language: A Self-Paced Listening Study

According to Processing Difficulties Hypothesis (McDonald, 2006), individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) that depends on in part second language (L2) proficiency play a significant role in late L2 learners’ sensitivity to morphosyntacic structures. The purpose of the present study is to test the hypothesis and to examine the effects of WMC and L2 proficiency on how late learners of Korean as a second language (KSL) process tense agreement violations. The results corroborated that native speakers of Korean were more accurate than learners of KSL, and the effects of WMC and L2 proficiency on sensitivity to tense agreement violations were significant in oral grammaticality judgment task (offline). However, in self-paced listening task (online), native speakers of Korean did neither reveal a processing cost for tense disagreement, and learners of KSL with higher WMC and L2 proficiency did nor show greater sensitivity to tense disagreement. The findings, therefore, support in part the effects of WMC and L2 proficiency on late L2 learners’ sensitivity to morphosyntactic violations. Implications for further research and limitations of the present study were also discussed.