WORD FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN EFL READING: AN EYE TRACKING STUDY

Do you know what happens in mind when we encounter a novel word while reading a newspaper, a paragraph or a short story? Via eye tracking technique, this study aimed to gather clues about how our mind reacts to an unknown word while we read in another language by examining word familiarity effects o...

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Main Author: Emrah Dolgunsöz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Informascope 2018-04-01
Series:International Online Journal of Education and Teaching
Online Access:http://iojet.org/index.php/IOJET/article/view/383
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author Emrah Dolgunsöz
author_facet Emrah Dolgunsöz
author_sort Emrah Dolgunsöz
collection DOAJ
description Do you know what happens in mind when we encounter a novel word while reading a newspaper, a paragraph or a short story? Via eye tracking technique, this study aimed to gather clues about how our mind reacts to an unknown word while we read in another language by examining word familiarity effects on eye movements during EFL reading. After a vocabulary test, eye movements of 60 EFL learners at intermediate level were recorded while they read identical sentence pairs including words with different length and frequency. The results showed that (1) total time spent on words and reanalysis times were predicted by vocabulary knowledge, (2) initial word processing was not predicted by vocabulary size (3) unfamiliar words attended more attention and required more cognitive effort than familiar words, (4) familiar words are processed in similar time spans for English as L1 and L2 but unfamiliar words cause more cognitive load in EFL. The results were discussed in comparison to L1 eye movement research in reading and were evaluated regarding EFL reading in terms of noticing hypothesis, incidental vocabulary acquisition and EFL reading instruction.
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spelling doaj.art-5f334fa74bc64553998cd1163f6404712023-02-15T16:10:22ZengInformascopeInternational Online Journal of Education and Teaching2148-225X2148-225X2018-04-0152WORD FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN EFL READING: AN EYE TRACKING STUDYEmrah DolgunsözDo you know what happens in mind when we encounter a novel word while reading a newspaper, a paragraph or a short story? Via eye tracking technique, this study aimed to gather clues about how our mind reacts to an unknown word while we read in another language by examining word familiarity effects on eye movements during EFL reading. After a vocabulary test, eye movements of 60 EFL learners at intermediate level were recorded while they read identical sentence pairs including words with different length and frequency. The results showed that (1) total time spent on words and reanalysis times were predicted by vocabulary knowledge, (2) initial word processing was not predicted by vocabulary size (3) unfamiliar words attended more attention and required more cognitive effort than familiar words, (4) familiar words are processed in similar time spans for English as L1 and L2 but unfamiliar words cause more cognitive load in EFL. The results were discussed in comparison to L1 eye movement research in reading and were evaluated regarding EFL reading in terms of noticing hypothesis, incidental vocabulary acquisition and EFL reading instruction.http://iojet.org/index.php/IOJET/article/view/383
spellingShingle Emrah Dolgunsöz
WORD FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN EFL READING: AN EYE TRACKING STUDY
International Online Journal of Education and Teaching
title WORD FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN EFL READING: AN EYE TRACKING STUDY
title_full WORD FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN EFL READING: AN EYE TRACKING STUDY
title_fullStr WORD FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN EFL READING: AN EYE TRACKING STUDY
title_full_unstemmed WORD FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN EFL READING: AN EYE TRACKING STUDY
title_short WORD FAMILIARITY EFFECTS IN EFL READING: AN EYE TRACKING STUDY
title_sort word familiarity effects in efl reading an eye tracking study
url http://iojet.org/index.php/IOJET/article/view/383
work_keys_str_mv AT emrahdolgunsoz wordfamiliarityeffectsineflreadinganeyetrackingstudy