Previous research has shown that language learners tend to produce fewer and less-natural multi-word sequences (MWSs) compared to native speakers of the same language. In the present study, collocational processing was investigated in a sentence reading task. Specifically, the familiar collocations were predicted to modulate the P3 mean amplitudes in both monolinguals and bilinguals. Additionally, the contextual constraints were predicted to modulate the N400 component which has been shown to mirror a semantically predictive mechanism at work in language comprehension. Both P3 and N400 components were predicted to display differential patterns in native speakers compared to Mandarin speakers of English. The purpose of this work was to pinpoint the time windows at which the encoding of English verb-noun collocations differs between English monolinguals and Mandarin-English bilinguals, and how sentential constraint interacts with collocation to modulate this process. Moreover, the results are discussed in light of the existing psycholinguistic models of bilingual word recognition through an exploration of when and how the differences in two different orthographies might influence the reader's behavioral and electrophysiological performance. Overall, this study's results indicated that sentence-level constraint and multiword-level conventionality could modulate the differences in the P3 mean amplitudes between the monolinguals and bilinguals. Significant differences were found in the N400 measurement window within the two groups due to variations in constraint and collocation status, but not between the groups, suggesting that higher L2 English proficiency might modulate the semantic integration within the N400 measurement window. That is, bilinguals may exert more of their cognitive resources than monolinguals as a way to compensate for later semantic processing. These findings contribute to an improved understanding of the effects of multi-word processing on the ERP P3 and N400 components in native speakers and language learners of a language. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]