The Relationship between Non-verbal Active Memory and the Writing Skills of Iranian EFL Deaf Female Learners' Proficiency

This study aimed to investigate the impacts of nonverbal working memory on the writing skills of Iranian (EFL) deaf learners. To attain the purpose of the study, ۱۵ secondary school deaf learners were selected to participate in this study. They were ۸th-grade female students of Golestan Exceptional School aged ۱۳-۱۵. The researcher used a non-verbal memory test and a writing test to collect the required data. The participants were asked to participate in the selected tests. The results revealed that there was a statistically significant relationship between learners' non-verbal working memory and writing tests. The findings, also, demonstrated that there was not any significant difference between the writing skill performance of learners with higher capacities of non-verbal working memory and learners with lower capacities of non-verbal working memory. Therefore, the level of non-verbal working memory did not influence the writing skill. The findings have implications for pedagogy as well as further research.

Keywords:

Non-verbal active memory , writing skills , English language learners , Deaf and hard-of-hearing learners