Eye movement data from visual world paradigm experiment on anticipation and priming in L2 speakers and attrited L1 speakers of Italian. Executive function and eye-tracking experiments will be conducted to investigate processing of referential expressions. Conditions of high executive load (when speakers have to switch languages) will be compared to conditions of low load (no language switching required). Speakers’ recovery from inhibition of the unselected language, and how this affects processing, will also be investigated. The aim of this project is to compare language processing in two groups of adult late bilinguals: (1) native English second language speakers of Italian and German, who acquired these languages after puberty and have achieved high proficiency, and (2) native speakers of Italian and German who are long-term UK residents and are therefore undergoing native language attrition from exposure to English. Recent research suggests that these bilingual groups show similar behavior (both have difficulties with the interface between language and pragmatics, eg processing referential expressions) but there has been no systematic comparison of their online processing. This project will provide such a comparison. The hypothesis is that these difficulties are caused by inefficiency of the executive function mechanisms controlling attention. These mechanisms are taxed in bilinguals, as they constantly have to suppress one language when they speak or hear the other.
Eyetracking: participants viewed scenes while hearing sentences. Of interest were the speed of anticipatory eye movements towards the second object named in the sentence. Sentences came in pairs of primes and targets. Two features of the prime sentences were manipulated: (1) whether prime was unmarked or marked; (2) whether prime was in English or Italian. Additionally, participants were either attriters or learners. The target was always an Italian OVS sentence. Therefore for the prime to be SVO or Italian would constitute a switch (either of construction or of language).
