TY - JOUR

T1 - The relationship between long-term memory ability and instructed second language learning

T2 - Evidence from research and implications for practice

AU - Pili-Moss, Diana

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS, 2025.

PY - 2025/6

Y1 - 2025/6

N2 - The ability to encode, store and retrieve linguistic information long-term is key to effective second language learning and use. Alongside its importance for second language acquisition theory, investigating the role of long-term memory is fundamental to advance pedagogical implementations, in the effort to optimise language instruction and maximise its effectiveness by catering for individual learners’ differences. In order to achieve these goals, the role of variability in explicit and implicit long-term memory has been investigated employing methodology developed in neuropsychological research in laboratory settings. More recently, this research programme has extended to less controlled, but also more ecologically-valid, instructed contexts, included in the foreign language classroom. This article aims at reviewing these studies, as well as at providing an overview of recent research advancing new proposals on how the findings of long-term memory research can be implemented to benefit L2 pedagogy.

AB - The ability to encode, store and retrieve linguistic information long-term is key to effective second language learning and use. Alongside its importance for second language acquisition theory, investigating the role of long-term memory is fundamental to advance pedagogical implementations, in the effort to optimise language instruction and maximise its effectiveness by catering for individual learners’ differences. In order to achieve these goals, the role of variability in explicit and implicit long-term memory has been investigated employing methodology developed in neuropsychological research in laboratory settings. More recently, this research programme has extended to less controlled, but also more ecologically-valid, instructed contexts, included in the foreign language classroom. This article aims at reviewing these studies, as well as at providing an overview of recent research advancing new proposals on how the findings of long-term memory research can be implemented to benefit L2 pedagogy.

KW - EXPLICIT LANGUAGE APTITUDE

KW - IMPLICIT LANGUAGE APTITUDE

KW - LONG-TERM MEMORY

KW - SECOND LANGUAGE APTITUDE

KW - Language Studies

KW - Didactics of English as a foreign language

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105008378939&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1558/isla-2024-1220

DO - 10.1558/isla-2024-1220

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:105008378939

VL - 8

SP - 172

EP - 192

JO - Instructed Second Language Acquisition

JF - Instructed Second Language Acquisition

SN - 2398-4155

IS - 2

ER -