Spanish Task Research Articles

Decomposing Variation in Vocabulary and Listening Comprehension Task Performance in Spanish and English Into Person, Ecological, and Assessment Differences for Spanish-English Bilingual Children in the United States.

We investigated the contributions of person, ecological, and assessment characteristics to one's performance on vocabulary and listening comprehension tasks in English and Spanish. Person characteristics included English learner status, ecological characteristics included instructional program enrollment (bilingual vs. English immersion) and poverty status, and assessment characteristics included the language of assessment (Spanish vs. English) and linguistic grain size (vocabulary vs. listening comprehension). Data were from 208 Spanish-English emergent bilingual children in Grade 1 in the United States and were analyzed using explanatory item response models. Substantial variance in the tasks across both languages was attributable to the random effects of assessment/item (74%) and person (26%). English learner status was a significant student predictor of language performance, and the instructional program was a significant ecological predictor of language performance. Regarding assessment characteristics, both the language of assessment and linguistic grain size explained the variance in performance. There were no differences in performance on English assessments between children in the Spanish-English bilingual program and children in the English immersion program. However, on the Spanish tasks, children in the bilingual program outperformed their peers in the English immersion program. These findings highlight the importance of considering not only person/child characteristics but also ecological and assessment characteristics for Spanish-English bilingual children's performance on oral language tasks. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.26972749.

Evaluating the performance of multilingual models in answer extraction and question generation

Multiple-choice test generation is one of the most complex NLP problems, especially in languages other than English, where there is a lack of prior research. After a review of the literature, it has been verified that some methods like the usage of rule-based systems or primitive neural networks have led to the application of a recent architecture, the Transformer architecture, in the tasks of Answer Extraction (AE) and Question Generation (QG). Thereby, this study is centred in searching and developing better models for the AE and QG tasks in Spanish, using an answer-aware methodology. For this purpose, three multilingual models (mT5-base, mT0-base and BLOOMZ-560 M) have been fine-tuned using three different datasets: a translation to Spanish of the SQuAD dataset; SQAC, which is a dataset in Spanish; and their union (SQuAD + SQAC), which shows slightly better results. Regarding the models, the performance of mT5-base has been compared with that found in two newer models, mT0-base and BLOOMZ-560 M. These models were fine-tuned for multiple tasks in literature, including AE and QG, but, in general, the best results are obtained from the mT5 models trained in our study with the SQuAD + SQAC dataset. Nonetheless, some other good results are obtained from mT5 models trained only with the SQAC dataset. For their evaluation, the widely used BLEU1-4, METEOR and ROUGE-L metrics have been obtained, where mT5 outperforms some similar research works. Besides, CIDEr, SARI, GLEU, WER and the cosine similarity metrics have been calculated to present a benchmark within the AE and QG problems for future work.

Focusing on derivational-driven cognate patterns to promote vocabulary acquisition in Spanish

Cognates have been heavily incorporated into second language (L2) vocabulary instruction as they share form and meaning across languages and have demonstrated an advantage for learning. The present article aims to measure the effects of explicit, cognate, derivational-driven instruction in L2 Spanish. 49 intermediate-low Spanish learners participated in the experiment and completed a pre- and post-lexical decision task in Spanish, followed by a language history questionnaire. 25 learners composed the explicit instruction group and 24 composed the control group. Results from a three-way ANOVA (2x4x2) analyzing reaction times and accuracy demonstrate that both explicit and control groups process cognates and non-cognates faster in the post-test. However, participants in the explicit instruction group process cognates less accurately and non-cognates more accurately in the post-test, which could be attributed to the activation of formal lexical features of the instruction intervention. Results are interpreted in light of the nature of L2 instruction and lexical representation.

Evaluating Transformers and Linguistic Features integration for Author Profiling tasks in Spanish

Author profiling consists of extracting their demographic and psychographic information by examining their writings. This information can then be used to improve the reader experience and to detect bots or propagators of hoaxes and/or hate speech. Therefore, author profiling can be applied to build more robust and efficient Knowledge-Based Systems for tasks such as content moderation, user profiling, and information retrieval. Author profiling is typically performed automatically as a document classification task. Recently, language models based on transformers have also proven to be quite effective in this task. However, the size and heterogeneity of novel language models, makes it necessary to evaluate them in context. The contributions we make in this paper are four-fold: First, we evaluate which language models are best suited to perform author profiling in Spanish. These experiments include basic, distilled, and multilingual models. Second, we evaluate how feature integration can improve performance for this task. We evaluate two distinct strategies: knowledge integration and ensemble learning. Third, we evaluate the ability of linguistic features to improve the interpretability of the results. Fourth, we evaluate the performance of each language model in terms of memory, training, and inference times. Our results indicate that the use of lightweight models can indeed achieve similar performance to heavy models and that multilingual models are actually less effective than models trained with one language. Finally, we confirm that the best models and strategies for integrating features ultimately depend on the context of the task.

Cross-linguistic effects of form overlap in aural recognition of Spanish–English cognates

Abstract This study investigated the effect of cross-linguistic overlap in L1 and L2 auditory recognition of Spanish–English cognates. The study examined the correlation between objective and subjective measures of overlap and analyzed how these measures predict patterns in auditory recognition. 62 Spanish-speaking learners of English and 63 English-speaking learners of Spanish completed two auditory lexical decision tasks in Spanish and English and a rating task, where they rated the perceived phonological similarity of cognates. The results revealed moderate correlations between subjective and objective measures of overlap. While orthographic overlap had no effect, increased phonological overlap facilitated recognition in L1 and L2 Spanish and English and had larger effects in L2 recognition. Perceived similarity was the best predictor among the measures of overlap. The findings support models suggesting that cross-linguistic co-activation is facilitated by increased form similarity and studies reporting modality dependent effects of cross-linguistic form overlap in lexical recognition.

Enhancement of phonemic verbal fluency in multilingual young adults by transcranial random noise stimulation

Several studies have analyzed the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on verbal fluency tasks in non-clinical populations. Nevertheless, the reported effects on verbal fluency are inconsistent. In addition, the effect of other techniques such as transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) on verbal fluency enhancement has yet to be studied in healthy multilingual populations. This study aims to explore the effects of tRNS on verbal fluency in healthy multilingual individuals. Fifty healthy multilingual (Spanish, English and Basque) adults were randomly assigned to a tRNS or sham group. Electrodes were placed on the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left inferior frontal gyrus. All participants performed phonemic and semantic verbal fluency tasks before, during (online assessment) and immediately after (offline assessment) stimulation in three different languages. The results showed significantly better performance by participants who received tRNS in the phonemic verbal fluency tasks in Spanish (in the online and offline assessment) and English (in the offline assessment). No differences between conditions were found in Basque nor semantic verbal fluency. These findings suggests that tRNS on the left prefrontal cortex could help improve phonemic, yet not semantic, fluency in healthy multilingual adults.

What's in the Sound? Common and Language‐Specific Patterns in Brain Activation and Functional Connectivity for Phonological Awareness in Spanish–English Bilinguals

AbstractPhonological awareness is the stepping‐stone to learning to read as it helps children map language sounds onto letters. Theories of bilingualism posit that phonological awareness is a language‐common literacy skill. However, bilingual learners are also thought to build language‐specific representations. To illuminate common and specific dual‐language processes, we asked bilingual Spanish–English heritage language speakers (N = 60, Mage = 8.2) to complete a phonological sound‐matching task in Spanish and English during functional Near Infrared Neuroimaging (fNIRS). The left perisylvian activation was common across bilinguals' two languages, including similar active regions and functional connections. The findings further revealed language‐specific modulation of the system with more robust engagement of the temporal networks for Spanish and frontal networks for English. We interpret the results in the context of analytically demanding reading experiences in English and more informal home‐based Spanish language experiences typical of heritage language speakers.

H - 53 Performance Validity in a Mexican Population.

The aim of the present study was to cross-validate recent research on three embedded performance validity tests (PVTs) in a Spanish-speaking Mexican sample. The sample consisted of 52 male and 77 female participants residing in Mexico with a mean age of 25.26 (SD = 10.45). Participants were neurologically and psychologically healthy and completed a neuropsychological battery in Spanish. The Reliable Digit Span, Phonemic Fluency Test (i.e., FAS), and Semantic Fluency Tests were used to evaluate failure rates in our sample. Daugherty and colleagues' (2022) PVT cutoff scores were used. Chi-square analysis was used to evaluate failure rates between the groups. Chi-square analysis revealed no significant failure rate differences between gender groups on any PVTs. However, we found that 12% of the male group failed the Phonemic Fluency Test compared to 5% of the female group, X2 = 1.747, p = 0.186. Meanwhile, 2% of the male group failed the Semantic Fluency Test compared to 0% of the female group, X2 = 1.492, p = 0.222. Finally, 6% of the male group failed the Reliable Digit Span compared to 17% of the female group, X2 = 3.529, p = 0.060. Our data shows that male participants demonstrate higher failure rates on verbal fluency tasks than females. Moreover, males had lower failure rates compared to females on Reliable Digit Span. Further exploration with bigger sample sizes is needed to explore what may be influencing validity test performance between gender groups. More studies in this area will help researchers and clinicians determine if persons completing cognitive tasks in Spanish are proving adequate effort.

Code-Switching During Narratives by Bilingual Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder.

This study examined the frequency, direction, and structural characteristics of code-switching (CS) during narratives by Spanish-English bilingual children with and without developmental language disorder (DLD) to determine whether children with DLD exhibit unique features in their CS that may inform clinical decision-making. Spanish-English bilingual children, aged 4;0-6;11 (years;months), with DLD (n = 33) and with typical language development (TLD; n = 33) participated in narrative retell and story generation tasks in Spanish and English. Instances of CS were classified as between utterance or within utterance; within-utterance CS was coded for type of grammatical structure. Children completed the morphosyntax subtests of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment to assist in identifying DLD and to index Spanish and English morphosyntactic proficiency. In analyses examining the contributions of both DLD status and Spanish and English proficiency, the only significant effect of DLD was on the tendency to engage in between-utterance CS; children with DLD were more likely than TLD peers to produce whole utterances in English during the Spanish narrative task. Within-utterance CS was related to lower morphosyntax scores in the target language, but there was no effect of DLD. Both groups exhibited noun insertions as the most frequent type of within-utterance CS. However, children with DLD tended to exhibit more determiner and verb insertions than TLD peers and increased use of "congruent lexicalization," that is, CS utterances that integrate content and function words from both languages. These findings reinforce that use of CS, particularly within-utterance CS, is a typical bilingual behavior even during narrative samples collected in a single-language context. However, language difficulties associated with DLD may emerge in how children code-switch, including use of between-utterance CS and unique patterns during within-utterance CS. Therefore, analyzing CS patterns may contribute to a more complete profile of children's dual-language skills during assessment. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23479574.

The use of mazes over time in Spanish heritage speakers in the US.

Mazes are linguistic disfluencies such as filled pauses, repetitions, or revisions of grammatical, phonological, or lexical aspects of words that do not contribute to the meaning of a sentence. Bilingual children are believed to increase the numbers of mazes in their native or heritage language, the minority language, as they become more proficient in the second language, the societal language. Mazes may increase over time in bilingual Spanish-speaking children as they become more proficient in English, the societal language in the United States. However, current studies have not been conducted longitudinally. Higher rates of mazes in the heritage language over time may be due to changes in language proficiency and differences in processing demands in the children as they use more complex language. Moreover, children with developmental language disorder (DLD) can also present higher rates of mazes than children with typical language. Heritage speakers, therefore, are at risk of being misdiagnosed with DLD due to high rates of mazes. Currently, we do not understand what the typical rates of mazes are as heritage speakers get older and become more proficient in the societal language. The current study examined the type and frequency of Spanish mazes longitudinally in a group of 22 Spanish heritage speakers with and without DLD and determined the changes over time. A total of 11 children with typical language development (TLD) and 11 with DLD participated in this 5-year longitudinal study. Using a wordless picture book, children completed a retelling task in Spanish during the spring of each academic year (PK to 3rd grade) as part of a 5-h testing battery. Narratives were transcribed and coded for types of mazes (filled pauses, repetitions, grammatical revisions, phonological revisions, and lexical revisions). The results of the study indicate that TLD children increased their overall percentage of mazed words and utterances. The opposite pattern was observed in the DLD group, which decreased their percentage of mazed words and utterances. In contrast, both groups demonstrated a decrease in repetitions in first grade and an increase in third grade. Additionally, the TLD and DLD children decreased in the percentage of fillers in first grade and then increased in the third grade. Results suggest that maze use is quite variable in heritage speakers and does not necessarily differentiate groups. Clinicians should not rely solely on mazes to determine ability status. In fact, high use of mazes can reflect typical language development.

Dominance, Language Experience, and Increased Interaction Effects on the Development of Pragmatic Knowledge in Heritage Bilingual Children

Abstract We investigate whether dominance, language experience, and increased interaction have an effect on the development of heritage bilingual children’s knowledge of the discourse-pragmatic constraints guiding null and overt subjects. A group of child heritage bilinguals (n = 18, mean age = 5;5) and comparison groups of adults: Mexican Spanish monolinguals (n = 15), heritage bilinguals in the United States (n = 16), and English monolinguals in the United States (n = 16) completed a language background questionnaire, a portion of the Bilingual English-Spanish Assessment (BESA) in English and Spanish, a forced-choice task (FCT) in Spanish, and two acceptability judgment tasks (AJT s): one in English and one in Spanish. Results showed that heritage children and adults pattern similarly and differently from adult monolinguals. Increased interaction at home has a positive effect on accuracy in the pragmatic conditions that license null subjects in Spanish without affecting overt subject patterns in English, the dominant language.

Development and validation of an experimental verbal Episodic Memory task in Spanish.

To develop and validate an experimental verbal episodic memory task in Spanish. Six encoding blocks were elaborated, three deep and three superficial, each one with different demands of cognitive effort. The blocks were reviewed by four expert judges and tested in a pilot application. The agreement was assessed on whether the task allowed combined processing level and cognitive effort to be manipulated during incidental encoding of words, as well as clarity of instructions, examples, and workflow. Variables such as lexical availability, metrics, and strength of association were useful to differentiate the cognitive effort between each block. The judges agreed that the processing blocks allowed a combined manipulation of the level of processing and cognitive effort and that the instructions are precise. After the pilot, the participants agreed that the instructions, examples, and way of working were easy to understand and perform. The results provide evidence of validity related to the content for the proposed experimental task, thus becoming a viable alternative to consider in research aimed at identifying environmental factors that contribute to compensating the defects shown by episodic memory with age.

Desarrollo y validación de una tarea experimental de Memoria Episódica verbal en español

ABSTRACT Purpose To develop and validate an experimental verbal episodic memory task in Spanish. Methods Six encoding blocks were elaborated, three deep and three superficial, each one with different demands of cognitive effort. The blocks were reviewed by four expert judges and tested in a pilot application. The agreement was assessed on whether the task allowed combined processing level and cognitive effort to be manipulated during incidental encoding of words, as well as clarity of instructions, examples, and workflow. Results Variables such as lexical availability, metrics, and strength of association were useful to differentiate the cognitive effort between each block. The judges agreed that the processing blocks allowed a combined manipulation of the level of processing and cognitive effort and that the instructions are precise. After the pilot, the participants agreed that the instructions, examples, and way of working were easy to understand and perform. Conclusion The results provide evidence of validity related to the content for the proposed experimental task, thus becoming a viable alternative to consider in research aimed at identifying environmental factors that contribute to compensating the defects shown by episodic memory with age.

Transfer effects from language processing to visual attention dynamics: The impact of orthographic transparency.

The consistency between letters and sounds varies across languages. These differences have been proposed to be associated with different reading mechanisms (lexical vs. phonological), processing grain sizes (coarse vs. fine) and attentional windows (whole words vs. individual letters). This study aimed to extend this idea to writing to dictation. For that purpose, we evaluated whether the use of different types of processing has a differential impact on local windowing attention: phonological (local) processing in a transparent language (Spanish) and lexical (global) processing of an opaque language (English). Spanish and English monolinguals (Experiment 1) and Spanish-English bilinguals (Experiment 2) performed a writing to dictation task followed by a global-local task. The first key performance showed a critical dissociation between languages: the response times (RTs) from the Spanish writing to dictation task was modulated by word length, whereas the RTs from the English writing to dictation task was modulated by word frequency and age of acquisition, as evidence that language transparency biases processing towards phonological or lexical strategies. In addition, after a Spanish task, participants more efficiently processed local information, which resulted in both the benefit of global congruent information and the reduced cost of incongruent global information. Additionally, the results showed that bilinguals adapt their attentional processing depending on the orthographic transparency.

Intonation Patterns in Argentinean- and Venezuelan-Canadian Heritage Speakers of Spanish

An encompassing study projected by Rao (2016) identified various factors such as transfer from English, parental input, and pragmatic context as contributing to the source of variation in the production of nuclear (i.e., final) intonation in the Spanish of heritage speakers (HSs) of Mexican Spanish who lived in the United States. The current study expands on Rao (2016) by quantifying the degree of similarity to (a) English and (b) parental intonation patterns in nuclear yes-no question intonation in Porteño (i.e., Buenos Aires, Argentina) Spanish HSs and Caraqueño (i.e., Caracas, Venezuela) Spanish HSs living in Ontario, Canada. Whereas the intonation contour in absolute interrogative questions in Canadian English is primarily ascending (Séguinot, 1976), it is often descending in Porteño (Gabriel et al., 2010) and Caraqueño Spanish (Sosa, 1999). Therefore, these groups of bilinguals lend themselves well to a study examining whether heritage intonational phonology is more influenced by parental input or whether it exhibits drift towards English. We tested eight adult English-dominant HSs – four of Argentinean heritage and four of Venezuelan heritage – and their parents. All participants filled out the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP; Birdsong, Gertken & Amengual, 2012). The participants were also asked to complete a semi-spontaneous task, where they were presented with fictional scenarios (identical in both languages) and asked to respond (e.g., Fictional Scenario: Entrás a un negocio donde nunca estuviste antes y preguntás si tienen mandarinas (You walk into a store that you’ve never been to before and ask if they have any mandarins) Anticipated utterance: ¿Tienen mandarinas? (Do you have any mandarins?)). Pragmatic context was controlled and taken into account with the elicitation of 6 different kinds of yes-no questions: surprise questions, requests, information-seeking questions, confirmation, offers and orders. The tasks were completed by both HSs and their parents; they first completed the task in Spanish, followed by English. English-speaking controls completed the same tasks only in English. This study only focuses on the Spanish stimuli of the HSs and their parents as well as the English of the control group. Results were caluclated using the total percent of frequencies of pitch accents across all participants. To analyze the impact of group on these pitch accents, a 3 x 4 Chi-squared was run across group and pitch accent, reavealing a significant impact of group on the frequency of pitch accent (p < 0.001, φ = 0.39). While L+H* showed a numerical declining trend across the three groups, this effect did not achieve significance (max absolute SR = 1.1). L* showed an increase across groups that achieved marginal significance (max absolute SR = -1.9). L+¡H* showed a significant decrease across the three groups (max absolute SR = -2.5). H+L* showed a significant difference across groups, however, this change was driven by a greater frequency in the monolingual English group (SR = 2.8), with no parametric trend across the three groups. An analysis was then run to analyze the impact of group on these boundary tones within the Argentinean group (p < 0.001, φ = 0.54) and then the Venezuelan group (p < 0.001, φ = 0.65), a 3 x 3 Chi-squared was run across generation and boundary, revealing a significant impact of generation on the frequency of boundary tone. Parental influence on pitch accent, nuclear pitch configuration, and boundary tones was also investigated. The proportion for each response characteristic for each child was paired with their parent’s proportion of responses (e.g. Child 1’s proportion of responses with a L* pitch accent was paired with their parent’s proportion of responses with an L* pitch accent), and bivariate Pearson correlations were performed for each type of characteristic. Parents’ pitch accents were significantly related to their child’s proportions of pitch accents (r(34) = 0.46, p = 0.005, CI = [0.15 0.68]). Neither boundary tone (r(16) = 0.18, p = 0.49, CI = [-0.32 0.59]) nor nuclear pitch configuration (r(16) = 0.21, p = 0.40, CI = [-0.28 0.62]) showed any significant relationship between parent and child. In sum, the results reveal that, while we do note parental influence on pitch accents, we do not observe this effect much on heritage speakers' boundary tones and nuclear pitch configurations, where we ascertain shifts toward English in heritage Spanish question intonation.

Tell or Retell? The Role of Task and Language in Spanish-English Narrative Microstructure Performance.

This study examined performance of dual language learners (DLLs) on Spanish- and English-language narrative story retells and unique tells. Transcription and analysis focused on comparisons of common microstructural language sample measures in Spanish and English across tasks. Each language sample measure was evaluated for its possible convergence with norm-referenced standardized assessments for DLL children. Spanish-English DLLs (N = 133) enrolled in English-only kindergarten or first-grade classrooms completed two-language sample tasks (one in each language), which were transcribed and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (Miller & Iglesias, 2017) for measures of syntactic complexity (mean length of utterance [MLU] in words), lexical diversity (number of different words [NDW]), and grammaticality (percent grammatical utterances [PGU]). Students also completed a norm-referenced sentence repetition task (Peña et al., 2014) and expressive vocabulary assessment (Martin, 2013). Comparison of story retells and unique stories revealed similar performance on MLU, NDW, and PGU across elicitation techniques, with one exception: NDW in Spanish was higher in the story retell condition. Predictive models revealed several differences in the relations between the microstructure measures and norm-referenced language measures by elicitation technique, although neither context demonstrated a consistent advantage across all metrics. Measures derived from story retells and unique tells offer practical findings for speech-language pathologists and other educators to use in assessment of early grade DLLs. This work increases knowledge of procedural differences across narrative assessments and their influence on language variables, supporting school-based speech-language pathologists in making assessment decisions for DLLs on their caseload. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19191278.

Variability in native and nonnative language: An ERP study of semantic and grammar processing

AbstractThis study examined individual-level variability in N400 and P600 ERP correlates of native and nonnative language sentence processing of semantic and grammar information. Twenty-six native English-speaking learners of Spanish as a second language were tested. Participants completed sentence reading tasks in English and Spanish during EEG recording. The group-level results for grammar showed P600s in the native and nonnative language. For semantics, there was an N400 only in the native language. Individual-level ERP patterns revealed that, for native language semantics, about two thirds of participants showed N400s, but approximately one-third showed P600s. For native language grammar, approximately one third of participants exhibited N400s instead of P600s. Individual-level ERPs showed similar variability in the nonnative language for semantics and grammar, and N400/P600 variability in Spanish related to Spanish verbal fluency and grammar knowledge. This contributes knowledge of how nonnative and native language neurocognition compare regarding the processing routes that individuals use during comprehension.

Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence on DOM in Romanian-Spanish bilinguals

Aims and objectives: This study aims to explore the acquisition of differential object marking (DOM) of Spanish and Romanian in balanced Romanian-speaking L2 speakers of Spanish. The study is motivated by the paucity of studies analyzing bidirectional cross-linguistic influence (BCLI) in DOM. Methodology: Romanian-Spanish bilinguals completed a background language questionnaire, a productive vocabulary test, an elicited production task, and an acceptability judgment task in Romanian and Spanish. Two groups of Spanish and Romanian monolinguals completed the same tasks in their languages for comparison purposes. Findings: The bilinguals show signs of BCLI at their DOM in Spanish and Romanian. They may also be at an incipient stage of L1 attrition. Originality: This is the first study that examines BCLI at DOM and the acquisition of DOM in Spanish by speakers of Romanian in a naturalistic setting. Significance: This project highlights the importance of examining both the L1 and the L2 when examining cross-linguistic influence. Limitations: This study cannot examine proficiency effects or acquisition stages because all the participants are highly proficient in Spanish.

Reading Comprehension in Both Spanish and English as a Foreign Language by High School Spanish Students.

Several studies have highlighted that reading comprehension is determined by different linguistic skills: semantics, syntax, and morphology, in addition to one’s own competence in reading fluency (accuracy, speed, and prosody). On the other hand, according to the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis, linguistic skills developed in one’s own native language (L1) facilitate the development of these skills in a second one (L2). In this study, we wanted to explore the linguistic abilities that determine reading comprehension in Spanish (L1) and in English (L2) in Secondary Education students. To do this, 73 Secondary Education Students (1st and 3rd year) participated in this study. The students carried out a battery of tasks in English and Spanish, all of them related to reading comprehension (expository text) and different linguistic skills, which included syntactic awareness tasks, synonymy judgment tasks (vocabulary), and morphological awareness tasks. The results indicated a positive correlation between linguistic competencies in both languages (indicating a transfer effect between languages), which were determined by school year, with a lower performance in the 1st year than in the 3rd year. Moreover, we found more skills with correlations in English reading comprehension than in Spanish. Finally, reading comprehension in L1 was mainly explained English reading comprehension, while English reading comprehension was predicted by grade, and syntactic awareness, as well as Spanish reading comprehension. This could be explained by the different levels of exposure to L1 and L2 of sample subjects, as the linguistic variables have different influences on the reading comprehension of both languages.

Task anxiety, cognition and performance on oral tasks in L2 Spanish

ABSTRACT This article investigates the three-way interface between foreign language anxiety (FLA), cognition and performance in Spanish L2 oral tasks, and examines qualitatively the construct of task anxiety (TA) in relation to its three interconnected facets: affective, cognitive and behavioral. 51 low-proficiency university learners of L2 Spanish performed two narrative tasks manipulated in their cognitive demands. Results revealed TA negatively affected certain functions of learners’ L2 cognition, especially at the attentional level and in word retrieval, highlighting the important role of L2 self-esteem in oral production tasks. This study advocates for a pedagogical approach that implements both curricular and individual aspects from a task-based language teaching perspective. It further emphasizes the importance of raising awareness of the interrelated emotional, cognitive and performance dimensions of the L2 learner, and how these may manifest in TA during oral task performance.