title: Second language processing and revision of garden-path sentences: a visual word study.
abstract: We asked whether children's well-known difficulties revising initial sentence processing commitments characterize theimmatureor thelearningparser. Adult L2 speakers of English acted out temporarily ambiguous and unambiguous instructions. While online processing patterns indicate that L2 adults experienced garden-paths and were sensitive to referential information to a similar degree as native adults, their act-out patterns indicate increased difficulties revising initial interpretations, at rates similar to those observed for 5-year-old native children (e.g., Trueswell, Sekerina, Hill & Logrip, 1999). We propose that L2 learners' difficulties with revision stem from increased recruitment of cognitive control networks during processing of a not fully proficient language, resulting in the reduced availability of cognitive control for parsing revisions.
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pozzan
authors.affiliation: University of Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Trueswell
keywords: garden-path sentences; second language acquisition; sentence processing; sentence revision