Although a majority of the world's population is bi- or multilingual, we still have a long way to go in understanding how sentence processing works in a second language. Research to date shows clear differences between L1 and L2 processing, but the sources and limits of these differences remain a matter of intense discussion. Crucial issues include the extent of influence of the first language on processing in the second, the effect of the level of proficiency of the speaker, the complexity of the structure to be processed, and the cognitive load involved in integrating various aspects of linguistic knowledge to process the relevant structure. In this talk, I explore these issues in the English L2 processing of two structures that are relevant to second language readers of English academic texts: complex noun phrases and verbs that can appear with either direct objects or sentential complements.

If you would like to meet with the speaker, please contact Matthew Crocker.