TY  - JOUR
A1  - Parshina, Olga
A1  - Laurinavichyute, Anna
A1  - Sekerina, Irina A.
T1  - Eye-movement benchmarks in heritage language reading
JF  - Bilingualism : language and cognition
N2  - 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.
KW  - bilingualism
KW  - heritage language
KW  - reading
KW  - eye movements
KW  - Russian
KW  - children
KW  - L2 learners
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1017/S136672892000019X
SN  - 1366-7289
SN  - 1469-1841
VL  - 24
IS  - 1
SP  - 69
EP  - 82
PB  - Cambridge University Press
CY  - Cambridge
ER  -