TY - JOUR
T1 - Text reading in English as a second language
T2 - Evidence from the Multilingual Eye-Movements Corpus
AU - Kuperman, Victor
AU - Siegelman, Noam
AU - Schroeder, Sascha
AU - Acartürk, Cengiz
AU - Alexeeva, Svetlana
AU - Amenta, Simona
AU - Bertram, Raymond
AU - Bonandrini, Rolando
AU - Brysbaert, Marc
AU - Chernova, Daria
AU - Da Fonseca, Sara Maria
AU - Dirix, Nicolas
AU - Duyck, Wouter
AU - Fella, Argyro
AU - Frost, Ram
AU - Gattei, Carolina A.
AU - Kalaitzi, Areti
AU - Lõo, Kaidi
AU - Marelli, Marco
AU - Nisbet, Kelly
AU - Papadopoulos, Timothy C.
AU - Protopapas, Athanassios
AU - Savo, Satu
AU - Shalom, Diego E.
AU - Slioussar, Natalia
AU - Stein, Roni
AU - Sui, Longjiao
AU - Taboh, Analí
AU - Tønnesen, Veronica
AU - Usal, Kerem Alp
N1 - Funding Information:
Research reported in this publication was supported by the following grants: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Partnered Research Training Grant, 895-2016-1008 (PI: G. Libben); the Canada Research Chair (Tier 2; PI: V. Kuperman); the CFI Leaders Opportunity Fund (PI: V. Kuperman); Concerted research action BOF13/GOA/032 of Ghent University; FWO Project (PI: M. Brysbaert); ERC Advanced grant, project 692502-L2STAT (PI: R. Frost), Estonian Research Council Mobilitas Pluss postdoctoral researcher grant MOBJD408 (PI: K. Lõo), the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) grant 48/20 (PI: N. Siegelman), and Saint Petersburg State University grant ID 75288744, 121050600033-7 (PI: N. Slioussar). K. Nisbet’s work has been supported by the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioral eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s. MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants' reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2. We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resource may support L2 reading research.
AB - Research into second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioral eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s. MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants' reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2. We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resource may support L2 reading research.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126463089&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0272263121000954
DO - 10.1017/S0272263121000954
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85126463089
SN - 0272-2631
JO - Studies in Second Language Acquisition
JF - Studies in Second Language Acquisition
ER -