Tracking Eye-Gaze Behavior in L1 and L2 Speech Perception

The Multimodal Context of Phonological Learning - Debra M. Hardison

Debra M. Hardison [+-]
Michigan State University
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Debra M. Hardison (PhD, Indiana University) is a faculty member in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University. She has directed language and academic programs, and taught courses on second-language phonetics and phonology, linguistics for language teachers, second language acquisition, and research methods. Her research focuses on auditory-visual integration in spoken language processing, co-speech gesture, applications of technology in perception and production training, and the relationship between learner variables and oral communication skill development. She has published in numerous handbooks, edited collections, and journals such as Language Learning & Technology, Applied Psycholinguistics, and Language Teaching Research.

Description

Chapters 4 and 5 address the question of where perceivers look on the face of a talker and how eye gaze patterns change as a speech event unfolds. Chapter 4 provides some background on eye-movement research with an emphasis on speech. Chapter 5 presents original data from a study that tracked the eye movements of L1 English intermediate-level L2 French learners during L1 and L2 vowel identification tasks in different stimulus conditions. Identification accuracy and several eye gaze measures were calculated for both languages, and eye movements were visualized through heatmaps and gaze plots. This study was able to assess how much of the variability in each measure was accounted for by the independent variables of language and stimulus condition, and how much could be attributed to variability across the learners. In post-study interviews, the learners reflected on their use of facial cues in phonological learning.

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Citation

Hardison, Debra. Tracking Eye-Gaze Behavior in L1 and L2 Speech Perception. The Multimodal Context of Phonological Learning. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. Sep 2025. ISBN 9781000000000. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=46493. Date accessed: 16 Jul 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.46493. Sep 2025

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