Text Complexity Modulates Cross-Linguistic Sentence Integration in L2 Reading

Abstract

Cross-linguistic influences (CLI) in first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) reading have been widely demonstrated in experimental paradigms with adults at the word and sentence levels. However, less is known about CLI in adolescents during naturalistic text reading. Through eye-tracking and behavioral measures, this study investigated expository reading in functionally English monolingual and Spanish (L1) - English (L2) bilingual adolescents. In particular, we examined the role of L1 (Spanish) sentence integration skills among the bilingual adolescents when L2 school texts contained challenging syntactic structures, such as complex clauses, elaborated noun phrases, and anaphoric references. Results of generalized multilevel linear regression modeling demonstrated CLI in both offline comprehension and online eye-tracking measures that were modulated by school text characteristics. We found a positive relationship (i.e., facilitation) between L1 sentence integration skills and L2 English text comprehension, especially for passages with greater clause complexity. Similar main, but not modulatory, effects of sentence integration skill were found in online eye-tracking measures. Overall, both language groups appeared to draw upon similar reading component skills to support reading fluency and comprehension when component skills were measured only in English. However, differential patterns of association across languages became evident when those skills were measured in both L1 and L2. Taken together, our findings suggest that bilingual adolescents’ engagement of cross-linguistic resources in expository reading varies dynamically according to both language-specific semantic knowledge and language-general sentence integration skills, and is modulated by text features, such as syntactic complexity.

Studying the effect of self-selected background music on reading task with eye movements

“…Table 2 summarizes the aforementioned eye movement measures to capture participants’ cognitive processes and mental efforts. According to previous research 17 , 31 , 64 , four of these measures were lexical ones in the early stage , reflecting unconscious word recognition, lexical access, and automatic text processing. They are measures of the first pass eye movements at word-level, including First Fixation Duration, First Pass Dwell Time, First Pass Saccade Amplitude, and First Pass Dwell Time before Skipped Words.…”

“… Measures Description Implications on learning/cognition Lexical processing stage First fixation duration Length of time spent on first fixating on a word These four measures are at local word-level. Longer fixation and dwell time and shorter saccade amplitude at this level can reflect increased cognitive load in unconscious word recognition, lexical access, and automatic text processing 17 , 31 , 64 First pass dwell time Aggregated duration of all first pass fixations on a word First pass saccade amplitude Amplitude of the first saccade into a word First pass dwell time before skipped words Summed durations of all first pass fixations on a word that is directly before skipped words Post-lexical processing stage Total fixation count Total number of fixations on each passage These four measures are at global passage-level. More fixations and regressions, longer fixation duration, and lower word skipping rate at this level can reflect increased cognitive load in conscious information integration and controlled processing 17 , 31 , 64 Total fixation duration Aggregated fixation durations of each passage Total regression count Number of all inter-word regressions within a passage Total word skipping rate Number of skipped words divided by total count of words in a passage Other Change of pupil size Difference between average pupil size and pupil size baseline divided by pupil size baseline in a passage Change of pupil size can indicate arousal, stress, and mental workload 15 , 52 , 60 , 61 Blink rate Number of blinks per minute Blink rate can indicate mental workload, fatigue, and state of attention …”

“…The late stage is to connect individual words and reconstruct content, also known as post-lexical processes 16 , 31 . Eye movement can indicate cognitive load imposed on readers at both early (lexical access) and late (post-lexical process) stages of information processing 16 , 17 . The early processing is typically represented by first pass measures such as first pass fixation duration and first pass saccade amplitude where “first pass” refers to the first time a reader looks at a region (i.e., word) as opposed to re-reading 13 .…”

“…Methodologically, while previous studies on reading and BGM were mostly based on self-report measures and reading tests 3 – 5 , 10 – 12 , the development of eye-tracking technology provides a more objective approach with fine-grained eye movement data 13 , 14 . So far few studies have employed eye-tracking technology to probe how BGM impacts the reading process 10 , 15 , 16 , and even fewer delved into finer eye-movement measures such as those in lexical and post-lexical levels 16 , 17 . Besides reading task performance which aimed to assess how well students accomplished a reading task and included measures of passage comprehension accuracy and passage reading time, this study also examined self-reported metacognition and eye movement measures to answer the following two research questions (RQs): RQ1 Is there any difference in reading task performance, self-reported metacognition, or eye movement patterns between students who read with and without BGM?…”

Socioecological and psycholinguistic approaches to multilingual health literacy.

“…For example, Kim et al (2018) found that high (versus low) skilled multilingual L2 readers were faster to process L2 words, particularly when reading simplified texts (simplified for text cohesion, lexical complexity, and syntactic complexity). Similarly, Leon-Guerrero et al (2021) found that adolescent multilinguals reading L2 educational texts could overcome cross-linguistic intrusions as a function of their syntactic integration skills, semantic knowledge, and text complexity. Thus, comprehension of L2 texts might not solely depend on L2-specific word knowledge, but also on L1 reading skills for syntactically complex texts (also see, Yamasaki & Prat, 2021).…”