The development of a Persian reading span test for the measure of L۱ Persian EFL learners’ working memory capacity

This study describes  working  memory and developing and validating of an  L۱ Persian reading span test for the measurement of working  memory of L۱ Persian EFL learners. The test, which included  ۶۴  Persian  sentences,  was  developed  based  on  Daneman  and Carpenter’s (۱۹۸۰) reading  span  test.  The  shortcomings  of  the  test  were  identified  and  removed  over  three  pilot studies  on  ۷۴  participants.  The  final  test  was  used  in  a  study  with  ۱۴۰  participants  at  three different proficiency levels. The results of  an item analysis, as indicated by Cronbach’s Alpha, displayed  an  internal  reliability  of  .۸۴۴  and  .۷۹۰  for  the  RST  processing  and  recall  scores respectively. This suggests that the newly developed test is reliable enough and could be used to measure  working  memory  capacity  for  future  L۲  studies.  This  study  also  provides  a  clear procedure for the development of a reading span test for speakers of other languages.

Keywords:

Working Memory Capacity , reading span test , Processing , storage