Working Memory: Reading Time Allocation Strategies in Spanish Readers and Learners of Spanish as L2

• In Event: 70.066 - Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: 70.066-3 - Trends in Second Language/Multilingual Reading Research

Abstract

The present paper reports two studies about the effect of working memory (WM) and reading time strategies -defined in terms of readers’ end of clause (EOC) pauses, on the recall of texts of different syntactic complexity. Study one shows that native Spanish-speaking college students shows equally a “flat” vs. a better “paused” time allocation to EOC word that interacts with WM in predicting text recall. Study two shows that English-speaking teachers of Spanish display mostly a “flat” strategy, that does not interact with WM when accounting for text recall when reading in L1 (English) or L2(Spanish).

Authors

• Alejandro A. Lazarte, Auburn University

• Sue Barry, Auburn University