Passionate about languages, but listening and speaking – ¡Ay, Caramba! Autistic adults discuss foreign language learning

This publication is included in the Autistic Autism Scholarship Project. one author of this publication is identified as autistic in the project.

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Caldwell-Harris, C. L. (2022). Passionate about languages, but listening and speaking – ¡Ay, Caramba! Autistic adults discuss foreign language learning. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 45(6), 1888-1903. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2029869

Publication date: 1 Feb 2022 Added to AutiHub: 5 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
1
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 1 (100.0%)
  1. Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris *

Abstract

Little is known about how persons with autism spectrum conditions experience the process of learning foreign languages. To augment the research literature (reviewed here) with the experiences of autistic persons, online autism forums were scrutinised. Discussions pertinent to language learning were identified in English, Spanish, French and German, with 169 posts analysed. Thematic analysis revealed 8 themes. Three themes concerned ease and difficulty of learning. Reading and writing were strengths, due to their offline nature. Listening comprehension was difficult, especially with background noise. Speaking was difficult, due to demands of immediacy. Four inter-related themes could be understood as positive outcomes of autistic traits. Languages were a special interest, and many posters reported being self-taught. Posters often listed many languages but acknowledged that learning their full list was impractical. Posters reported being interested in diverse aspects of language structure, suggesting that languages were compelling because they provided an opportunity for systemising. Finally, posters discussed how autism conferred both advantages and disadvantages for language learning. Some posters discussed their engagement in terms reminiscent of polyglots and mild forms of linguistic savantism. This analysis revealed a group of curious learners whose abilities and strengths are mostly unknown to applied linguists.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 01:00.

Cited references
37
With a DOI
26
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
8
6 / 37 (16.2%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
6 / 37 (16.2%)
References with detected author names
31 / 37 (83.8%)
Without detected author names
6
Without a structured title
5
Without a stable identifier
7
References with raw author names still to review
4
References with external metadata lookup issues
2
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
74
From DOI or external metadata
74
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
8
22 / 74 (29.7%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 52 / 74 (70.3%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
6 / 74 (8.1%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 6 / 22 (27.3%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 2 / 63 (3.2%).
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