Eye-tracking Experiment 1 and 2

This visual-world eye-tracking study explores how L1 and L2 listeners use and integrate language cues in real-time spoken sentence comprehension. Participants heard English (Experiment 1) and Mandarin (Experiment 2) sentences while viewing four-object displays. Each trial began with a statement naming an object (Here is a cabbage), followed by an action sentence (Now Susan will shred the cabbage after school). They clicked on the named object. Sentences varied by pitch accent, information status (old/new), and verb appropriateness. Results showed that L1 and L2 listeners integrated cues similarly for old nouns, but differed for new nouns. L1 listeners combined semantic and prosodic cues flexibly, while L2 listeners struggled with integration, influenced by language-specific prosodic systems.