CADERNO DE RESUMOS II Congresso Internacional da ... - Unesp

II Congresso Internacional da ABRAPUIaccuracy and complexity, and that gains in WMC reach significanceas a function of L2 lexically dense speech development for lowerspans only. Weissheimer (2007) suggests that lower spans experiencesignificant WMC variation as a function of L2 speech development(when compared against higher spans) due to the developmentof L2 proficiency, more specifically, to the development of thelexical system. However, a look at the relationship between WMC,as measured by the SST in L2, and measures of L2 proficiencypoints to a different scenario. This talk reports on the resultsof two studies which investigated the relationship between WMCin L1 and L2 across three L2 proficiency levels. Results revealedthat knowledge of the language significantly explains a proportionof the variation in the L2 SST, suggesting a confound betweenthe two variables. L2 WMC proved to be more related to the acquisitionof L2 grammar than L1 WMC, but did not predict L2 lexical performancealone. L1 WMC, on the contrary, proved to be a good predictorof L2 lexical performance. The findings are discussed in light ofthe need to attest the validity and reliability of the L2 SST andto reassess its relationship with measures of L2 speech performance.Individual differences in L2 learning: age, prior languageexperience, sex, aptitude, and working memoryRaquel Carolina Souza Ferraz D Ely (UFSC)As recently pointed out by Ellis (1998), the field of researchon L2 learning is witnessing a renewal of interest in the studyof individual learner differences and in how these impact on theprocesses responsible for learning. A relatively marginalized L2area of enquiry, individual differences refer to dimensions oflearners’ personal characteristics such as motivation, learningstrategies, cognitive styles, age, aptitude, anxiety, willingnessto communicate, beliefs and, more recently, sex, and workingmemory . In this paper, which is part of the session “Individualdifferences in the learning of English as a foreign language: workingmemory and speech production”, we present and discuss researchon 5 related constructs of individual differences that have recentlybeen shown to be of particular relevance to our understandingof how L2 learning takes place: age, prior language experience,sex, aptitude, and working memory. After defining each constructand summarizing the methods and findings of representative83