Influence of syntactic complexity on second language prediction

This study investigated the influence of syntactic complexity on prediction in second language (L2) processing. In a visual world eye-tracking experiment, we compared L2 listeners’ prediction while processing simple (e.g., The dancer will open/ get the present) vs. complex sentences (e.g., I know the friend of the dancer that will open/ get the present). Prediction was measured by comparing fixations to targets (e.g., present) between semantically biasing (e.g., open) vs. neutral verb (e.g., get) conditions. Results showed that L2 speakers generated predictions while processing complex as well as simple sentences. However, the prediction effect during complex sentence processing emerged somewhat later. These findings suggest that L2 prediction is influenced by syntactic complexity which can increase cognitive load during sentence processing.