CEFR and Eye Movement Characteristics during EFL Reading: The Case of Intermediate Readers
Abstract
This study primarily aims to (1) examine the relationship between foreign language reading proficiency and eye movements during reading, and (2) to describe eye movement differences between two CEFR proficiency groups (B1 and B2) by using eye tracking technique. 57 learners of EFL were tested under two experimental conditions: Natural L2 reading and isolated sentence stimulus. The results revealed that total fixation duration and first pass time were predicted significantly by L2 reading proficiency in both experiments while second pass time and single fixation duration were found to be stimulus sensitive. Furthermore, B2 learners were observed to have less total fixation, first pass and second pass time and rate in both experiments when compared to B1 learners. The findings confirmed that characteristics of eye movements change as L2 reading skill develops. The use of eye tracking technique in future language classrooms to observe L2 learner reading development was also discussed.
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