Factors in the path from native language to the acquisition of second language proficiency

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An online study in collaboration with Adam Smith from the Future University Hakodate was completed at the end of March. The study evaluated the effect of exposure on the reading fluency of learners of English as a foreign language in Japan. The exposure manipulation consisted of six blocks of 20 short texts each. The texts in a block had about the same number of words (300 to 550) from controlled vocabulary lists. Participants were told to read as many as they wished of the 120 texts within a period of just over three months. Feedback prioritized reading speed rather than perfect comprehension. Compared to the results of a pre-test, reading times per word in a post-test revealed improved reading fluency as (a) reading times per word were 300 milliseconds faster without significant declines in comprehension, and (b) the speedup at matrix verbs increased along with the number of texts that the participants read.One possible explanation for the result at the verbs is that exposure to the texts improved learners’ sentence-processing abilities by honing their expectations, thus decreasing the cost to integrate verbs to previous constituents such as the subject in the sentences. If correct, this would suggest that this type of exposure may promote qualitative improvements in reading fluency by enhancing how learners predict what is coming next in the sentence.The results will be presented at the 24th Annual International Conference of the Japanese Society for Language Sciences (JSLS2023) in July 2023.