عنوان
پدید آورنده
موضوع
رده
کتابخانه
محل استقرار
TL53014
انگلیسی
Resolution of Gender Cue Conflict by Arabic-Speaking Learners of English: An Eye-Tracking Study
[Thesis]
DeCook, Elena
Liu, Dilin
The University of Alabama
2020
66 p.
M.A.
The University of Alabama
2020
While every English learner experiences the learning process differently, some phenomena are more common for learners from specific L1 groups. In the case of this study, speakers of Arabic as an L1 often find that reading in English presents a level of difficulty beyond that of speaking, listening, or writing. Many theories have been suggested to explain this occurrence, especially theories that hinge on the differences between the writing systems and phonology of the two languages. Research on the differences between Arabic L1 and English L1 readers on the syntactic level is less common, but information about higher-order processes is no less essential to understanding how Arabic L1 English learners approach reading. This study was conducted in order to better understand how this learner population processes written text in English. This procedure examines how Arabic L1 and English L1 readers react to gender cue mismatching in written materials by using eye tracking technology. Specifically, the study consists of an experiment that follows the guidelines of Kreiner, Sturt & Garrod (2008) to assess how Arabic L1 learners of English are affected by gender mismatches between reflexive pronouns and the nouns they reference. Sentences were presented in 2x2 conditions: the subject of each was either a definitionally-gendered noun, like "queen," or a stereotypically-gendered one, like "nurse," and each sentence contained a reflexive pronoun that either matched or mismatched the gender of the noun. An infrared eye-tracking camera was used to determine the location of participants' gazes over time while reading. The resulting data was analyzed to determine the effects of both conditions on Arabic L1 English learners in contrast to native English speakers. Results indicate that Arabic L1 English learners are affected by gender cue conflict, but the processing costs incurred by resolving that conflict are incurred later in the reading process in comparison to L1 English speakers. This is consistent with eye-tracking results derived from other non-native English readers and presents new evidence of processing differences on the syntactic level between Arabic L1 and English L1 readers. Implications for pedagogy and future research are discussed.
English as a second language--ESL
Foreign language instruction
Foreign language learning
Gender studies
Womens studies
DeCook, Elena
Liu, Dilin
The University of Alabama
مطالعه متن کتاب p
[Thesis]
276903
a
Y
