Resumen de Autistic adults discuss their experience of additional language learning: an exploration of the ‘different strategies’ hypothesis

Catherine L. Caldwell Harris, Tiffany McGlowan, Meghan Garrity, Shirui Chen

• Analyzing online discussion forums allowed us to compare how autistic and neurotypical adults experience second and foreign language learning. We focused on the hypothesis that autistic learners more frequently use analytical strategies, which is defined as treating language as an object of analysis to extract linguistic generalizations. Analytical learning can compensate for social challenges and difficulties in attending to speech in conversational settings. Quantitative content analysis was performed on 169 posts from autistic forums and 309 posts from general public forums. Autistic posters reported more difficulties with speaking/listening, especially in noisy environments, but strengths in reading/writing. They were often motivated by intrinsic pleasure, frequently identifying as polyglots or having language as a special interest/hobby. Posts in autistic forums showed greater appreciation for grammar and language structure and mentioned being interested in learning a larger number of languages than did posts in neurotypical forums. These findings suggest that analytical learning and systemizing offer important pathways for language acquisition in autistic learners, potentially compensating for social learning challenges. Understanding these distinct approaches will be helpful for educators, parents and autistic learners themselves.