Language and Learning: The Effects of Language-Dependent Memory on Punjabi and Mandarin ESL Students

Previous research suggests that people may remember information more accurately when the language of retrieval matches that of encoding. We investigated this with 45 ESL student subjects, native language Mandarin or Punjabi, recruited from introductory psychology classes at Langara College. Participants read two passages containing academic-type history and biology information, which they were randomly assigned to read in English or their native language, and completed a recall test in English. We hypothesized that students would score higher on the recall test if they read in English, to match the test. Results indicated a significant difference between conditions for Punjabi speaking students, but not for Mandarin speakers. Language-dependent memory effects may vary between languages, therefore future research should examine languages separately or comparatively