Unveiling cognitive activities associated with longer reading times on unknown words in L2 reading: An eye-tracking case study

Research on L2 incidental vocabulary learning has yielded inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between reading times and word learning gains. To elucidate this relationship, this study investigated cognitive activities associated with longer reading times on unknown words in a natural reading context. Eight L2 English learners read a graded reader containing 16 unknown words, with repetitions ranging from 1 to 18, while their eye movements were recorded. The eyetracking task was followed by three offline word tests and stimulated recall interviews. The results showed that (i) longer reading times may indicate deeper engagement in word learning, which may or may not succeed in establishing word meaning; (ii) longer reading times may reflect deeper engagement in solving discourse-level comprehension problems rather than word meaning interpretation. These findings imply that interpretation of links between reading times on target words and word learning outcomes should not be oversimplified, especially in natural reading contexts.