The Role of Working Memory in Second Language Sentence Processing: The Case of English Relative Clause Comprehension among Korean Learners*

초록

The present study investigates the relationship between working memory (WM) and second language (L2) sentence processing, specifically focusing on the comprehension of English relative clauses (RCs). While previous studies have observed that object RCs typically impose greater cognitive demands than subject RCs, the role of WM in mediating this difficulty remains unclear. To investigate this relationship, we employed a self-paced reading method to assess reading times and comprehension accuracy among advanced Korean learners of English. WM was measured using both digit span and reading span tasks. Results revealed that higher WM was associated with faster reading speeds and better comprehension across RC types. Although object RCs took longer to process, there was a lack of a significant interaction between WM and RC types. Peak reading times were observed at region 4 (corresponding to the object position in subject RCs and the main verb position in object RCs). This pattern diverges from previous research findings and suggests that advanced learners engage in proactive resource allocation. These results emphasize WM’s role in L2 sentence processing and indicate processing strategies for improving learners’ management of complex syntactic structures.

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