Nahatame, S. (2015, March). Eye movements across sentences during L2 discourse processing: A study of Japanese learners of English. Poster presented at the Annual Conference of the American Association for Applied Linguistics, Toronto.

1. Eye Movements Across Sentences During L2 Discourse Processing:
A Study of Japanese Learners of English
Shingo Nahatame
University of Tsukuba
Shingo Nahatame
Graduate school, University of Tsukuba
Email: shingo.nahatame@gmail.com
Contact
Hyönä, J., Lorch, R.F., Jr., & Rinck, M. (2003). Eye movement measures to study global text
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10.1017/S02722631 12000861
References
Introduction.
• A growing number of studies adopt eye tracking to investigate L2
learners’ lexical and sentence processing.
(see Roberts & Siyanova, 2013, for a review)
• Researchers suggest that eye tracking is applicable to the study of
processing larger text units, such as discourse.
“the usefulness of the eye tracking method in studying global text
processing”
(Hyönä, Lorch, & Rinck, 2003, p.313)
“the time is ripe for more comprehension studies to use eye movement
data to understand discourse processing”
(Rayner, Chace, Slattery, & Ashby, 2006, p.252)
Purpose.
• The present study focused on eye movements across sentences
during L2 reading because they are specific to discourse processing.
• It investigated whether eye movements across sentences differ
according to a discourse factor (i.e., discourse integration difficulty
of the sentence).
Introduction & Purpose
• The mean probability of making regressions was approximately 40%,
regardless of discourse integration difficulty, t(17) = 0.93, p = .365, d =
0.22. (see Table 2 and Figure 2)
• The mean probability of rereading showed a marginally significant
difference: The probability was higher in the more difficult condition
than in the less difficult condition, t(17) = 2.07, p = .054, d = 0.40.
 The discourse integration difficulty of the final sentence
moderately affected how frequently learners reread the
sentence.
Methods
1. Regressions from a sentence towards the preceding sentences
occurred about 40% of the time, regardless of the discourse
integration difficulty.
2. Rereading the sentence (after regressions) is more likely to occur when
the sentence is difficult to integrate with the preceding sentences.
3. These eye movements across sentences largely depend on individuals
and should be thought of as a personal trait.
Conclusions
Participants.
• 18 Japanese university students (ages: 18–22; B2 to C1 levels in CEFR)
Materials.
• 12 sets of short narratives composed of five sentences each (Table 1)
• Two levels of difficulty of discourse integration
 The final sentence of the passage either confirmed (less difficult
integration) or disconfirmed (more difficult integration) the
predictions drawn from the prior context.
Results & Discussion
0
20
40
60
80
100
0 20 40 60 80 100
Lessdifficult
More difficult
Figure 3. Scatter plot of probability (%) of regressions (left) and rereading (right).
Figure 1. Target eye movements.
(b)
Table 1. Example of an Experimental Passage
The boys’ high school baseball team was having tests for the spring season.
The coach decided to test the boys’ baseball skills before he did anything else.
The first batter to step up to the plate was a new boy on the team.
As the pitcher released the ball, the boy raised his bat without knowing it was a
forkball. (less difficult) / and the ball went directly towards him. (more difficult)
Suddenly, the ball dropped in front of the bat and fell in the catcher’s mitt.
Procedure and Analysis.
• Eye movements across sentences
occurring for text reanalysis were
examined:
(a) how frequently participants
make regressions from the final
sentence to preceding sentences
(b) how frequently they reread the
final sentence after regressions
to preceding sentences
(a)
0
20
40
60
80
100
0 20 40 60 80 100
Lessdifficult
More difficult
Figure 2. Probability (%) of regressions from and rereading of target sentences.
More difficult Less difficult
M SD M SD
Regressions 41.67 31.94 36.44 31.31
Rereading 22.22 26.79 12.78 20.34
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Regressions Rereading
Probability(%)
More difficult
Less difficult
Table 2. Probability (%) of Regressions From and Rereading of Target Sentences
• The overall probability of making regressions ranged from 0% to 100%
between individual participants (see Figure 3).
• The overall probability of rereading ranged from 0% to 80% between
individual participants (see Figure 3).
 Eye movements across sentences during L2 discourse processing
largely depend on individuals. (see also the handout)
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Japan Society for the Promotion of
Science (JSPS) Fellows (No. 24・1337).