Investigating the time-course of phonological prediction in native and non-native speakers of English: A visual world eye-tracking study

Abstract This “visual-world” eye-tracking study investigated the processing of focus in English sentences with preverbal only by L2 learners whose L1 was either Cantonese or Dutch, compared to native speakers of English. Participants heard only-sentences with prosodic prominence either on the object or on the verb and viewed pictures containing an object-focus alternative and a verb-focus alternative. We found that both L2 groups showed delayed eye movements to the alternative of focus, which was different from the native speakers of English. Moreover, Dutch learners of English were even slower than Cantonese learners of English in directing fixations to the alternative of focus. We interpreted the delayed fixation patterns in both L2 groups as evidence of difficulties in integrating multiple interfaces in real time. Furthermore, the similarity between English and Dutch in the use of prosody to mark focus hindered Dutch learners’ L2 processing of focus, whereas the difference between English and Cantonese in the realization of focus facilitated Cantonese learners’ processing of focus in English.

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The Interaction of Morphological Gender With Stereotypical Information: An Eye Tracking Study on Gender Inferences

International Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.5296/ijl.v11i4.15169 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 111

Author(s):

Daniela Ronca ◽

Vincenzo Moscati

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Gender Stereotypes ◽

Mental Model ◽

Time Course ◽

Sentence Comprehension ◽

Visual World ◽

Male And Female ◽

Gender Biases ◽

On Line ◽

Competing Models

In this paper we observe the time-course and the activation of gender stereotypes comparing the predictions of two competing models: the Minimalist (McKoon et al., 1992) and the Mental Model Hypothesis (Garnham 2001). The on-line processing of sentences containing male-biased stereotypes is experimentally investigated in Italian on epicenes nouns (i.e. nouns that do not morphologically disambiguate between male and female referents) adopting a procedure based on the Visual World paradigm.Eye-movements during sentence comprehension show that stereotypes become immediately active as soon as male-biased role nouns are encountered, as predicted by the Mental Model Hypothesis. Our results also show that when disambiguating cues based on morphological agreement are provided, the activation of stereotypes is blocked. This indicates that morphological gender is quickly processed and that it can suppress stereotypical gender biases.

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Adding more fuel to the fire: An eye-tracking study of idiom processing by native and non-native speakers

10.26686/wgtn.13670674 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Siyanova ◽

K Conklin ◽

N Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Figurative Meaning ◽

Point Analysis ◽

On Line ◽

Native Speakers Of English ◽

Idiom Processing

Using eye-tracking, we investigate on-line processing of idioms in a biasing story context by native and non-native speakers of English. The stimuli are idioms used figuratively (at the end of the day - 'eventually'), literally (at the end of the day - 'in the evening'), and novel phrases (at the end of the war). Native speaker results indicate a processing advantage for idioms over novel phrases, as evidenced by fewer and shorter fixations. Further, no processing advantage is found for figurative idiom uses over literal ones in a full idiom analysis or in a recognition point analysis. Contrary to native speaker results, non-native findings suggest that L2 speakers process idioms at a similar speed to novel phrases. Further, figurative uses are processed more slowly than literal ones. Importantly, the recognition point analysis allows us to establish where non-natives slow down when processing the figurative meaning. © The Author(s) 2011.

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Prosodic cues in second-language speech processing: A visual world eye-tracking study

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658319879196 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 026765831987919 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Michelle Perdomo ◽

Edith Kaan

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Speech Processing ◽

Information Structure ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Movement Behavior ◽

Visual World ◽

Prosodic Cues ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Building Information ◽

Native Speakers Of English

Listeners interpret cues in speech processing immediately rather than waiting until the end of a sentence. In particular, prosodic cues in auditory speech processing can aid listeners in building information structure and contrast sets. Native speakers even use this information in combination with syntactic and semantic information to build mental representations predictively. Research on second-language (L2) learners suggests that learners have difficulty integrating linguistic information across various domains, likely subject to L2 proficiency levels. The current study investigated eye-movement behavior of native speakers of English and Chinese learners of English in their use of contrastive intonational cues to restrict the set of upcoming referents in a visual world paradigm. Both native speakers and learners used contrastive pitch accent to restrict the set of referents. Whereas native speakers anticipated the upcoming set of referents, this was less clear in the L2 learners. This suggests that learners are able to integrate information across multiple domains to build information structure in the L2 but may not do so predictively. Prosodic processing was not affected by proficiency or working memory in the L2 speakers.

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Generating predictions based on semantic categories in a second language: A case of numeral classifiers in Japanese

IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching ◽

10.1515/iral-2017-0118 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 58 (3) ◽

pp. 323-349 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Sanako Mitsugi

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Real Time ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Facilitative Effect ◽

Visual World ◽

Numeral Classifiers ◽

Native Japanese Speakers ◽

Semantic Categories ◽

Japanese Speakers

AbstractThis study examined whether native Japanese speakers and second language (L2) speakers of Japanese use information from numeral classifiers to predict possible referents. Using a visual-world eye-tracking paradigm, we asked participants to identify picture objects that take either the same or different numeral classifiers while they listened to Japanese sentences referring to one object. The results showed that native speakers looked to the target predictively more often when the classifier was informative about noun identity than when it was not. L2 learners also showed a facilitative effect of classifiers that was comparable to that of native speakers. In addition, we found that the level of proficiency played a role in the speed of real-time referent resolutions when the participants heard the target nouns in audio input. However, such an effect was not observed during the period when the predictions were generated.

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Processing delays

Linguistics in the Netherlands ◽

10.1075/avt.00005.kor ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 ◽

pp. 65-78

Author(s):

Loes Koring ◽

Hans van de Koot

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Sentence Processing ◽

Word Order ◽

Time Course ◽

Visual World ◽

Visual World Paradigm ◽

Exact Time ◽

On Line

Abstract An eye-tracking experiment using the Visual World Paradigm (VWP) shows that in on-line sentence processing in English the argument of an unaccusative verb reactivates late after verb offset. In contrast to previous studies, this VWP experiment establishes the exact time course of this effect, which matches the time course previously found for Dutch, despite differences in word order between the two languages. Furthermore, it uncovers an early reactivation of the argument of unergative verbs that has previously gone unnoticed. Such an effect has previously been observed for Dutch, but not for English. Moreover, the effect seems to occur earlier in English than in Dutch. We suggest that this difference may be due to the more rigid word order of English, which provides the parser with more informative cues.

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Adding more fuel to the fire: An eye-tracking study of idiom processing by native and non-native speakers

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658310382068 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 251-272 ◽

Cited By ~ 105

Author(s):

Anna Siyanova-Chanturia ◽

Kathy Conklin ◽

Norbert Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Figurative Meaning ◽

Point Analysis ◽

On Line ◽

Native Speakers Of English ◽

Idiom Processing

Using eye-tracking, we investigate on-line processing of idioms in a biasing story context by native and non-native speakers of English. The stimuli are idioms used figuratively ( at the end of the day — ‘eventually’), literally ( at the end of the day — ‘in the evening’), and novel phrases ( at the end of the war). Native speaker results indicate a processing advantage for idioms over novel phrases, as evidenced by fewer and shorter fixations. Further, no processing advantage is found for figurative idiom uses over literal ones in a full idiom analysis or in a recognition point analysis. Contrary to native speaker results, non-native findings suggest that L2 speakers process idioms at a similar speed to novel phrases. Further, figurative uses are processed more slowly than literal ones. Importantly, the recognition point analysis allows us to establish where non-natives slow down when processing the figurative meaning.

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LEXICAL AND SYNTACTIC CONGRUENCY IN L2 PREDICTIVE GENDER PROCESSING

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263116000437 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 171-199 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Holger Hopp ◽

Natalia Lemmerth

Keyword(s):

Adult Learners ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Grammatical Gender ◽

Visual World ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Syntactic Differences ◽

L1 And L2 ◽

German Mark ◽

Gender Processing

This article investigates how lexical and syntactic differences in L1 and L2 grammatical gender affect L2 predictive gender processing. In a visual-world eye-tracking experiment, 24 L1 Russian adult learners and 15 native speakers of German were tested. Both Russian and German have three gender classes. Yet, they differ in lexical congruency, that is, whether a noun (“house”) is assigned to the same or a different gender class. Further, gender is syntactically realized on postnominal suffixes in Russian but on prenominal articles in German. For adjectives, both Russian and German mark gender on suffixes. In predictive gender processing, we find interactions of proficiency and congruency for gender-marked articles. Advanced L2 learners show nativelike gender prediction throughout. High-intermediate learners display asymmetries according to syntactic and lexical congruency. Predictive gender processing obtains for all nouns in the (syntactically congruent) adjective condition, yet only for lexically congruent nouns in the (syntactically incongruent) article condition.

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Adding more fuel to the fire: An eye-tracking study of idiom processing by native and non-native speakers

10.26686/wgtn.13670674.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Anna Siyanova ◽

K Conklin ◽

N Schmitt

Keyword(s):

Eye Tracking ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Figurative Meaning ◽

Point Analysis ◽

On Line ◽

Native Speakers Of English ◽

Idiom Processing

Using eye-tracking, we investigate on-line processing of idioms in a biasing story context by native and non-native speakers of English. The stimuli are idioms used figuratively (at the end of the day - 'eventually'), literally (at the end of the day - 'in the evening'), and novel phrases (at the end of the war). Native speaker results indicate a processing advantage for idioms over novel phrases, as evidenced by fewer and shorter fixations. Further, no processing advantage is found for figurative idiom uses over literal ones in a full idiom analysis or in a recognition point analysis. Contrary to native speaker results, non-native findings suggest that L2 speakers process idioms at a similar speed to novel phrases. Further, figurative uses are processed more slowly than literal ones. Importantly, the recognition point analysis allows us to establish where non-natives slow down when processing the figurative meaning. © The Author(s) 2011.

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Presuppositions are Fast, whether Hard or Soft - Evidence from the visual world

Semantics and Linguistic Theory ◽

10.3765/salt.v24i0.2414 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

pp. 1 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Florian Schwarz

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Eye Tracking ◽

Processing Speed ◽

Processing Time ◽

Time Course ◽

Linguistic Meaning ◽

Visual World ◽

Online Processing ◽

Rapid Processing

One focus of work on the processing of linguistic meaning has been the relative processing speed of different aspects of meaning. While much early work has focused on implicatures in comparison to literal asserted content (e.g., Bott & Noveck 2004, Huang & Snedeker 2009, among many others), the present paper extends recent efforts to experimentally investigate another aspect of meaning, namely presuppositions. It investigates the triggers again and stop using the visual world eye tracking paradigm, and provides evidence for rapid processing of presupposed content. Our study finds no difference in timing for the two triggers, which is of theoretical relevance given proposals for distinguishing classes of triggers, such as hard vs. soft (Abusch 2010). Whatever differences between these there may be are apparently not affecting the online processing time course. As a further comparison, again was also compared to twice, which expresses essentially the same meaning without a presupposition. Shifts in eye movements for these two cases also appear to be entirely on par, further supporting the notion that presupposed and asserted content are available in parallel early on in online processing.

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