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ATTENTION TO FORM AND MEANING REVISITED

INSIGHTS FROM EYE TRACKING

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2021

Myeongeun Son Open the ORCID record for Myeongeun Son [Opens in a new window] ,
Jongbong Lee Open the ORCID record for Jongbong Lee [Opens in a new window]  and
Aline Godfroid Open the ORCID record for Aline Godfroid [Opens in a new window]
Myeongeun Son
Affiliation:
Nagoya University of Commerce and Business
Jongbong Lee*
Affiliation:
Nagoya University of Commerce and Business
Aline Godfroid
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
*
Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Jongbong Lee, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Nagoya University of Commerce & Business, 4-4 Sagamine Komenoki, Nisshin, Aichi, Japan 470-0193. E-mail: jongbong_lee@nucba.ac.jp
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Abstract

Motivated by a series of interconnected studies on simultaneous attention to form and meaning, we revisit L2 learners’ real-time processing of text by using eye-tracking as an unobtrusive method to provide concurrent data on attention allocation. Seventy-five L2 Spanish learners were instructed to attend to an assigned form in a reading passage and to press a button when they noticed it. After reading the passage, the learners answered 10 multiple-choice comprehension questions. The participants’ responses to the comprehension questions and their reading behaviors reflected in eye-movement data suggest that attention to grammatical form may hinder L2 learners’ simultaneous attention to form and meaning. However, individual differences in global text processing contributed to the differences in the participants’ text-comprehension scores over and above the task instruction to attend to form: Slower L2 readers who read the passage more carefully showed better text comprehension.

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Type
Research Article
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Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 788 - 817
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© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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