Second language (L2) researchers are becoming more interested in both L2learners’ knowledge of the target language and how that knowledge isput to use during real-time language processing. Researchers are thereforebeginning to see the importance of combining traditional L2 research methodswith those that capture the moment-by-moment interpretation of the targetlanguage, such as eye-tracking. The major benefit of the eye-tracking method isthat it can tap into real-time (or online) comprehension processes during theuninterrupted processing of the input, and thus, the data can be compared tothose elicited by other, more metalinguistic tasks to offer a broader picture oflanguage acquisition and processing. In this article, we present an overview ofthe eye-tracking technique and illustrate the method with L2 studies that showhow eye-tracking data can be used to (a) investigate language-related topics and(b) inform key debates in the fields of L2 acquisition and L2 processing.

Many studies on bilingual language processing have shown that lexical access isnot selective with respect to language. These studies typically used nouns asword stimuli. The aim of the present study was to extend the previous findingson noun processing to verb processing. In the first experiment, Dutch-Englishbilinguals performed a lexical decision task in their second language and werefaster to recognize cognate verbs (e.g., Dutch-Englishgeven-give) presented out of context than control words. Thisverb cognate facilitation effect was not modulated by verb tense. In a secondexperiment, cognates and controls were presented in sentence contexts while eyemovements were recorded. In contrast to the strong cognate facilitation effectson early and later reading time measures for nouns found in earlier studies,cognate facilitation was only observed on a later reading time measure (i.e.,go-past time). An interpretation of the results within current models ofbilingual language processing and lexical organization is provided.

Adult learners have persistent difficulty processing second language (L2)inflectional morphology. We investigate associative learning explanations thatinvolve the blocking of later experienced cues by earlier learned ones in thefirst language (L1; i.e., transfer) and the L2 (i.e., proficiency). Sagarra(2008) and Ellis and Sagarra (2010b) found that, unlike Spanishmonolinguals, intermediate English-Spanish learners rely more on salient adverbsthan on less salient verb inflections, but it is not clear whether thispreference is a result of a default or a L1-based strategy. To address thisquestion, 120 English (poor morphology) and Romanian (rich morphology) learnersof Spanish (rich morphology) and 98 English, Romanian, and Spanish monolingualsread sentences in L2 Spanish (or their L1 in the case of the monolinguals)containing adverb-verb and verb-adverb congruencies or incongruencies and choseone of four pictures after each sentence (i.e., two that competed for meaningand two for form). Eye-tracking data revealed significant effects for (a)sensitivity (all participants were sensitive to tense incongruencies), (b) cuelocation in the sentence (participants spent more time at their preferred cue,regardless of its position), (c) L1 experience (morphologically rich L1 learnersand monolinguals looked longer at verbs than morphologically poor L1 learnersand monolinguals), and (d) L2 experience (low-proficiency learners read moreslowly and regressed longer than high-proficiency learners). We conclude thatintermediate and advanced learners are sensitive to tense incongruenciesand—like native speakers—tend to rely more heavily onverbs if their L1 is morphologically rich. These findings reinforce theoriesthat support transfer effects such as the unified competition model and theassociative learning model but do not contradict Clahsen and Felser’s(2006a) shallow structure hypothesisbecause the target structure was morphological agreement rather than syntacticagreement.

This study focuses on beginning second language learners’ attention toirregular verb morphology, an area of grammar that many adults find difficult toacquire (e.g., DeKeyser, 2005;Larsen-Freeman, 2010). We measuredbeginning learners’ eye movements during sentence processing toinvestigate whether or not they actually attend to irregular verb features and,if so, whether the amount of attention that they pay to these features predictstheir acquisition. On the assumption that attention facilitates learning (e.g.,Gass, 1997; Robinson, 2003; Schmidt, 2001), we expected more attention (i.e., longer fixationsor more frequent comparisons between verb forms) to lead to more learning of theirregular verbs. Forty beginning learners of German read 12 German sentencepairs with stem-changing verbs and 12 German sentence pairs with regular verbswhile an Eyelink 1000 recorded their eye movements. The stem-changing verbsconsisted of six a → ächanging verbs and six e → i(e)changing verbs. Each verb appeared in a baseline sentence in the first-personsingular, which has no stem change, and a critical sentence in the second- orthird-person singular, which have a stem change for the irregular but not theregular verbs, on the same screen. Productive pre- and posttests measured theeffects of exposure on learning. Results indicate that learners looked longeroverall at stem-changing verbs than regular verbs, revealing a late effect ofverb irregularity on reading times. Longer total times had a modest, favorableeffect on the subsequent production of the stem vowel. Finally, the productionof only the a → äverbs—not the e → i(e)verbs—benefited from direct visual comparisons during reading,possibly because of the umlaut in the former. We interpret the results withreference to recent theory and research on attention, noticing, and languagelearning and provide a more nuanced and empirically based understanding of thenoticing construct.

In his 2007 study “Effects of Textual Enhancement and TopicFamiliarity on Korean EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension andLearning of Passive Form,” Lee demonstrated that learners were betterable to correct written sentences that contained incorrect English passive formsafter exposure to texts flooded with enhanced (versus nonenhanced) passiveforms. But with enhanced forms, learners did worse on comprehension tests, whicharguably demonstrated a trade-off: More attention to forms resulted in less tomeaning. In this study, a conceptual replication of Lee’s usingeye-movement data, I assessed how English passive construction enhancementaffects English language learners’ (a) learning of the form (via pre-and posttest gains on passive construction tests) and (b) text comprehension. Incontrast to Lee’s results, I found enhancement did not significantlyincrease form correction gain scores, nor did enhancement significantly detractfrom comprehension. There was no trade-off effect. Form learning andcomprehension did not correlate. By recording learners’ eye movementswhile reading, I found enhancement significantly impacted learners’noticing of the passive forms through longer gaze durations and rereading times.Thus, enhancement in this study functioned as intuitively and originally(Sharwood Smith, 1991, 1993) proposed;it promoted noticing, but, in this case, without further explicit instruction,it appeared to have done little else.

In a recent study, Lew-Williams and Fernald (2007) showed that native Spanish speakers use grammatical genderinformation encoded in Spanish articles to facilitate the processing of upcomingnouns. In this article, we report the results of a study investigating whethergrammatical gender facilitates noun recognition during second language (L2)processing. Sixteen monolingual Spanish participants (control group) and 18English-speaking learners of Spanish (evenly divided into high and low Spanishproficiency) saw two-picture visual scenes in which items matched or did notmatch in gender. Participants’ eye movements were recorded while theylistened to 28 sentences in which masculine and feminine target items werepreceded by an article that agreed in gender with the two pictures or agreedonly with one of the pictures. An additional group of 15 Italian learners ofSpanish was tested to examine whether the presence of gender in the firstlanguage (L1) modulates the degree to which gender is used during L2 processing.Data were analyzed by comparing the proportion of eye fixations on the objectsin each condition. Monolingual Spanish speakers looked sooner at the referent ondifferent-gender trials than on same-gender trials, replicating results reportedin past literature. Italian-Spanish bilinguals exhibited a gender anticipatoryeffect, but only for the feminine condition. For the masculine condition,participants waited to hear the noun before identifying the referent. Like theSpanish monolinguals, the highly proficient English-Spanish speakers showedevidence of using gender information during online processing, whereas the lessproficient learners did not. The results suggest that both proficiency in the L2and similarities between the L1 and the L2 modulate the usefulness ofmorphosyntactic information during speech processing.

Eye-trackers are becoming increasingly widespread as a tool to investigate secondlanguage (L2) acquisition. Unfortunately, clear standards formethodology—including font size, font type, and placement of interestareas—are not yet available. Although many researchers stress theneed for ecological validity—that is, the simulation of naturalreading conditions—it may not be prudent to use such a design toinvestigate new directions in eye-tracking research, and particularly inresearch involving small lexical items such as articles. In this study, weexamine whether two different screen layouts can lead to different results in aneye-tracking study on the L2 acquisition of Italian gender. The results of anexperiment with an ecologically valid design are strikingly different than theresults of an experiment with a design tailored to track eye movements toarticles. We conclude that differences in screen layout can have significanteffects on results and that it is crucial that researchers report screen layoutinformation.