Similar Comprehension, Different Reading: How Native Language Affects Reading in English as a Second Language
Researchers from the MECO international project, including experts from the HSE Centre for Language and Brain, have developed a tool for analysing data on English text reading by native speakers of more than 19 languages. In a large-scale experiment involving over 1,200 people, researchers recorded participants’ eye movements as they silently read the same English texts and then assessed their level of comprehension. The results showed that even when comprehension levels were the same, the reading process—such as gaze fixations, rereading, and word skipping—varied depending on the reader's native language and their English proficiency. The study has been published in Studies in Second Language Acquisition.
Reading in a foreign language is a complex skill, particularly when the reader's native language differs significantly. To investigate how a person's native language influences their reading in English, researchers from 36 universities, including HSE University, launched MECO, a collaborative international project, in 2020. As part of the project, researchers track the eye movements of speakers of different languages as they read texts in both their native language and in English, analysing reading fluency, gaze fixations, and the strategies readers use.
A new wave of MECO has added data on English reading collected from 660 participants in 16 laboratories across Europe, Asia, and South America. The experiment consisted of two stages. In the first stage, participants completed a series of behavioural tests measuring spelling, vocabulary, word and pseudoword reading, motivation, and non-verbal intelligence. Next, participants silently read 12 short English texts presented on a computer screen, with a difficulty level similar to that of texts for native English-speaking American students, and then answered comprehension questions. During the task, participants' eye movements were recorded using an EyeLink eye-tracker. The study combined new findings with data from earlier waves of the project, ultimately collecting and analysing eye-tracking data from more than 1,200 participants.
The results showed that most participants performed similarly on the questions, achieving comprehension accuracy between 70% and 75%. As for reading fluency, the data showed considerable variability. Native English speakers exhibited the highest fluency, characterised by fewer gaze fixations, more frequent word skipping, and less rereading. German speakers showed reading performance most similar to that of native English speakers, while those whose first languages were Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and others exhibited lower fluency and employed different strategies.
Interestingly, text comprehension was largely independent of eye movement patterns, and participants performed similarly on comprehension questions regardless of their reading fluency, which turned out to be closely linked to overall English proficiency: participants who scored higher on vocabulary, grammar, and other language tests read more confidently, with fewer rereadings and fixations and more word skipping.
'We now have a tool that allows us to evaluate English reading among native speakers of 19 languages. MECO’s open data enables comparisons of reading patterns across different languages as well as between native speakers and language learners and tracking the influence of first-language writing systems—whether Latin, Chinese, or Arabic-based scripts,' comment the authors of the paper. 'Over the years, more than 1,200 people have taken part in the project. This data will support numerous future studies exploring how native language influences text perception and reading skills in English.'
The study was conducted with support from HSE University's Basic Research Programme within the framework of the Centres of Excellence project.
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