@article{ParshinaLaurinavichyuteSekerina2021, author = {Parshina, Olga and Laurinavichyute, Anna and Sekerina, Irina A.}, title = {Eye-movement benchmarks in heritage language reading}, series = {Bilingualism : language and cognition}, volume = {24}, journal = {Bilingualism : language and cognition}, number = {1}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {1366-7289}, doi = {10.1017/S136672892000019X}, pages = {69 -- 82}, year = {2021}, abstract = {This eye-tracking study establishes basic benchmarks of eye movements during reading in heritage language (HL) by Russian-speaking adults and adolescents of high (n = 21) and low proficiency (n = 27). Heritage speakers (HSs) read sentences in Cyrillic, and their eye movements were compared to those of Russian monolingual skilled adult readers, 8-year-old children and L2 learners. Reading patterns of HSs revealed longer mean fixation durations, lower skipping probabilities, and higher regressive saccade rates than in monolingual adults. High-proficient HSs were more similar to monolingual children, while low-proficient HSs performed on par with L2 learners. Low-proficient HSs differed from high-proficient HSs in exhibiting lower skipping probabilities, higher fixation counts, and larger frequency effects. Taken together, our findings are consistent with the weaker links account of bilingual language processing as well as the divergent attainment theory of HL.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jovanovic2018, author = {Jovanovic, Nenad}, title = {The comprehension of the passive voice by different populations and the effects of structural priming on this process}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-47590}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-475900}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 164}, year = {2018}, abstract = {This thesis investigates the comprehension of the passive voice in three distinct populations. First, the comprehension of passives by adult German speakers was studied, followed by an examination of how German-speaking children comprehend the structure. Finally, bilingual Mandarin-English speakers were tested on their comprehension of the passive voice in English, which is their L2. An integral part of testing the comprehension in all three populations is the use of structural priming. In each of the three distinct parts of the research, structural priming was used for a specific reason. In the study involving adult German speakers, productive and receptive structural priming was directly compared. The goal was to see the effect the two priming modalities have on language comprehension. In the study on German-acquiring children, structural priming was an important tool in answering the question regarding the delayed acquisition of the passive voice. Finally, in the study on the bilingual population, cross-linguistic priming was used to investigate the importance of word order in the priming effect, since Mandarin and English have different word orders in passive voice sentences.}, language = {en} }