Eye movement evidence of cognitive strategies in SL vocabulary learning

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental study modeling the situation of non-contextual foreign language vocabulary learning. Subjects (n = 31) memorized words of a foreign language, which were presented in pairs with their Russian translations. Eye movements were recorded during the trial. After the presentation subjects recalled the foreign words, and they also provided a post hoc report about the learning strategies they used. As a result, 3 main techniques of foreign vocabulary learning were distinguished (“graphical”, “phonemic” and “semantic” techniques), characterized by emphasis on the corresponding level of processing. Strong patterns of interrelation between the mnemonic techniques, recall score and eye movement characteristics were observed.