Anaphora resolution in reading among Malaysian L2 English speakers : an eye-tracking investigation

Abstract

In this study, eye tracking was utilized to investigate online reading behaviour and comprehension among a less studies L2 speakers of English. The main purpose of this study was to investigate anaphora resolution in reading among Malaysian L2 English speakers, focusing on three objectives: (1) to identify L2 English speakers’ gaze behaviour when reading sentences with anaphors; (2) to identify the relationship between processing and comprehension of anaphors; and (3) to investigate the influence of word-frequency on the processing of anaphor. This study employed the quantitative method to measure the statisticalrelationship between the variables. This study involved 14 participants who were instructed to read the texts silently and their eye movements were recorded using the Tobii X300 non- intrusive eye-tracker with 300 Hz sample rate. The results indicated that generally the gaze behaviour of Malaysian L2 English speakers when reading anaphora texts corresponded to paststudies using L1 and L2 English speakers. Next, there were no apparent correlation observed between the processing of anaphor sentences with comprehension performances of the participants. Finally, the word-frequency ef ect on the whole is insignificant. Overall, advancedMalaysian L2 English speakers do not appear to show significant dif iculties when reading anaphors. This study has provided some noteworthy findings on the reading domain among L2 English speakers focusing on the processing and comprehending during anaphora resolution since scarcely any research has been conducted locally on this topic. This study added on andsubstantiated existing results from previous studies on L2 acquisition while filling the gap in the aspects of the roles of word-frequency during anaphora resolution. Moreover, this study has incorporated eye-tracking technology to validate findings in measuring reading fluency and comprehension which no local studies have included when investigating anaphora resolution.