Time Course of Verbs’ Implicit Causality During L2 Comprehension: An Extended Replication of Hijikata (2021)

Abstract

Although verbs’ implicit causality (IC) bias is an essential bridge between word- and discourselevel comprehension, when and how IC is used (the time course of IC) during second language (L2) comprehension is not fully clarified. This study sought to explore the time course of IC during L2 learners’ comprehension, with a focus on the directions of IC bias (first noun phrase [NP1] bias: Mary hurt John vs. second noun phrase [NP2] bias: Mary punished John). Thirty-seven Japanese undergraduates read sentences containing IC verbs. The sentences had pronouns that are consistent (e.g., Mary punished John because he...) or inconsistent (e.g., John punished Mary because he...) with the bias of IC. The results showed that only the NP2 bias of IC quickly affected participants’comprehension, as reflected by a significant slowdown in reading times immediately after the biasinconsistent pronoun. In contrast, the NP1 bias of IC only influenced the later phase of comprehension. Further analysis showed that this delayed effect of NP1 bias cannot be explained by the lack of participants’ lexical knowledge, but more likely relates to their utilization of knowledge. Together, these results indicate that how quickly IC is used during L2 comprehension depends on the directions of the IC bias. The findings were adapted as scaffolding for learners to facilitate their transition from word- to discourse-level comprehension.