Using intonation to disambiguate meaning: The role of empathy and proficiency in L2 perceptual development

The present study investigates the interplay between proficiency and empathy in the development of second language (L2) prosody by analyzing the perception and processing of intonation in questions and statements in L2 Spanish. A total of 225 adult L2 Spanish learners (L1 English) from the Northeastern United States completed a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) task in which they listened to four utterance types and categorized them as either questions or statements. We used Bayesian multilevel regression and drift diffusion modeling to analyze the 2AFC data as a function of proficiency level and empathy scores for each utterance type. We show that learner response accuracy and sensitivity to intonation are positively correlated with proficiency, and this association is affected by individual empathy levels in both response accuracy and sentence processing. Higher empathic individuals, in comparison with lower empathic individuals, appear to be more sensitive to intonation cues in the process of forming sound-meaning associations, though increased sensitivity does not necessarily imply increased processing speed. The results motivate the inclusion of measures of pragmatic skill, such as empathy, to better account for intonational meaning processing and sentence comprehension in second language acquisition.

Automated summary

This study examines the influence of proficiency and empathy on the development of second language prosody in L2 Spanish. The findings show that learner accuracy and sensitivity to intonation increase with higher proficiency levels, and that individual empathy levels affect both accuracy and processing. Higher empathic individuals demonstrate greater sensitivity to intonation cues in forming sound-meaning associations, indicating the importance of including measures of pragmatic skill, such as empathy, in second language acquisition studies.