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Exploring working memory and language dominance in heritage bilinguals’ writing processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2023

Julio Torres Open the ORCID record for Julio Torres [Opens in a new window]
Julio Torres*
Affiliation:
University of California, Irvine, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, Irvine, CA 92697, United States.
*
E-mail: torresju@uci.edu
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Abstract

Heritage language (HL) bilinguals’ writing skills has been a topic of inquiry in the field of HL education. However, little is still known about HL writers’ writing processes and the contribution of individual differences to these processes remains unexplored. By integrating keystroke-logging and think-aloud methodologies, this study examined 61 Spanish-English HL writers’ pausing and revision behaviors during the completion of Spanish (HL) and English writing tasks. Participants also completed an advanced Ospan working memory test and a language dominance questionnaire. The main findings revealed that, although HL writers’ pausing and revision behaviors did not significantly differ between writing tasks, the nature of their writing processes underlying these writing behaviors fluctuated. Further, language dominance as a multidimensional construct did not contribute to these writing results, whereas participants with higher working memory spent more time addressing orthographic and morphosyntactic encoding episodes during pauses within words when writing in both languages.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 45 , Special Issue 3: Individual differences and L2 writing: Expanding SLA research , July 2023 , pp. 710 - 736
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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