ERIC Number: EJ1343420
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Apr
Pages: 25
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-1539-0578
Causal and Semantic Relations in L2 Text Processing: An Eye-Tracking Study
Shingo Nahatame
Reading in a Foreign Language, v34 n1 p91-115 Apr 2022
This study is an extension of Nahatame's (2018) research that demonstrated the effects of causal and semantic relations between sentences on second language (L2) text processing. Employing eye tracking, this study aimed to examine whether these effects appear during more natural, uninterrupted reading processes and to identify the time course of the effects. In the experiment, Japanese learners of English read two-sentence texts that varied in their causal and semantic relatedness, as evaluated by crowdsourced human judgments and via a computational approach (latent semantic analysis), respectively. Two eye-movement measures were collected and analyzed: first-pass reading times for the second sentence and lookbacks from the second to the first sentence. The results indicated that causal relatedness had a robust impact on both reading times and lookbacks. However, semantic relatedness impacted only reading times, and its effects were modulated by causal relatedness. Theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological implications of this finding were discussed.
Descriptors: Semantics, Language Processing, Reading Rate, Attribution Theory, Sentences, Eye Movements, Reading Processes, Japanese, Native Language, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Decision Making, Computer Science, Teaching Methods, Psycholinguistics, Reading Research, Reading Tests, Language Tests, Graduate Students, Undergraduate Students, Foreign Countries
National Foreign Language Resource Center at University of Hawaii. 1859 East-West Road #106, Honolulu, HI 96822. e-mail: readfl@hawaii.edu; Web site: https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Japan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/mcq6u/