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Article published In: Concentric
Vol. 48:1 (2022) ► pp.1–29

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Autistic traits, working memory, and L2 prosodic boundary detection

 | National Taiwan University
Published online: 2 May 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/consl.21040.kuo
Abstract
This study aims to examine the roles of second language (L2) learners’ autistic traits and working memory capacity in detecting prosodic boundaries. Forty-six learners of English with Mandarin as their native language completed questionnaires on personality and cognitive assessment – an Autism-Spectrum Quotient questionnaire (AQ) and a Working Memory questionnaire (WM). They also completed a Rapid Prosody Transcription (RPT) task in which they were asked to mark prosodic boundaries produced by Barack Obama in recordings of his Weekly Address. The results revealed that autistic traits and working memory capacity were positively correlated with each other, and attention to detail was the primary predictor for the detection of boundary tones. These findings provide insight into L2 learners’ detection of prosodic boundaries along the autistic traits and working memory capacity continuum and further indicate that EFL instructions should take individual differences into consideration when assessing L2 learners’ performance in listening or comprehension tasks.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Autistic traits
    • 1.2Working memory capacity
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Design
    • 2.3Procedure
    • 2.4Materials
      • 2.4.1Listening stimuli in RPT task
      • 2.4.2Autism-spectrum quotient questionnaire (AQ)
      • 2.4.3Working memory questionnaire (WM)
    • 2.5Analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Descriptive statistics
      • 3.1.1Detection rates
      • 3.1.2Autistic trait scores
      • 3.1.3Working memory scores
    • 3.2Correlational analysis for the AQ scores and the WM scores
    • 3.3Multiple regression between scores and detection rates
      • 3.3.1AQ and WM subscale scores as predictors of the detection rates of phrase accents
      • 3.3.2AQ and WM subscale scores as predictors of the detection rates of boundary tones
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
    • 4.1L2 learners’ prosodic boundary detection and individual differences
    • 4.2Limitations
    • 4.3Implication
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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