Phonological interference effects during silent reading of L2 sentences by Korean learners of English

Abstract

The present study investigated the role of phonological representations during silent reading of L2 sentences by Korean learners of English in comparison with the effect of pragmatic plausibility thereof. Eighteen Korean college students of English participated in two self-paced reading experiments. In Experiment 1, the participants read sentences containing object-extracted relative clauses for which pragmatic plausibility was manipulated (e.g. The thief/policeman that the policeman/thief arrested was known ...). The result showed that increased processing difficulty for implausible propositions occurred at and after the relative clause verb (e.g. arrested). In Experiment 2, the same participants read sentences of similar structure, in which the phonological similarity between the main and relative clause subjects was manipulated (e.g. The runner/baker that the banker always feared bought ...). The result showed that increased processing difficulty due to phonological overlap occurred at the relative clause subject (e.g., banker). The results are discussed in terms of L2 learners` use of phonological representations in silent L2 reading.