Empirical Study on Pause Lengths in Catalan Easy Language Audios
Pujadas Farreras, Marina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Traducció i d'Interpretació i d'Estudis de l'Àsia Oriental)
Machuca Ayuso, María Jesús (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Filologia Espanyola)

Date:	2026
Abstract:	This study investigates the effect of pause lengthening in Easy Language audios - a feature typically recommended to improve comprehension - on participants' understanding, acceptability, and preferences. The participants of this study included 35 neurotypical Catalan native speakers (control group), 34 Catalan native speakers with intellectual disabilities (ID), and 31 second-language learners of Catalan (L2). Participants completed a comprehension test with audio featuring four inter-sentence pauses (590 ms, 740 ms, 890 ms, 1040 ms) and four intra-sentence pauses (250 ms, 400 ms, 550 ms, 700 ms). They also rated pause acceptability and indicated preferences. Results showed no significant improvement in comprehension with longer pauses in the ID or control groups, whereas L2 learners showed a non-significant trend toward improvement. Longer inter-sentence pauses were generally acceptable across groups, whereas longer intra-sentence pauses were less favored by the control group. Preferences for pause durations were unclear for the ID and L2 groups.
Grants:	Agencia Estatal de Investigación PID2022-137058NB-I00 Generalitat de Catalunya 2021/SGR-00077 Generalitat de Catalunya 2022/FI_B-00097
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Pauses ; Easy Language ; Listening comprehension ; L2 learners ; Intellectual disability
Published in:	XLinguae, Vol. 19, Num. 2 (2026) , p. 327-353, ISSN 1337-8384

DOI: 10.18355/XL.2026.19.02.20

27 p, 894.9 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Arts and Humanities > TransMedia Catalonia
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles