Developmental differences in L1 and L2 text comprehension: An ERP study

Abstract

Text comprehension relies on high-level cognitive processes. These processes might be challenging for young readers, especially when comprehension takes place in a non-native language, an issue that remains unexplored. Twenty-four children and twenty-six adolescent early sequential bilinguals, were presented with narratives in L1-Spanish and L2-English. Each text biased an initial inference (“baby”), which then required either literal (“The little cat…”) or inferential (“The little animal − meow…”) monitoring. Processing times at this sentence suggested less efficient comprehension monitoring in the L2, mainly with inferential information. Moreover, in a final sentence, either literal or inferential (depending on the previous sentence) revision was assessed by ERP to a disambiguating word (“cat”). N400 amplitude showed that adolescents semantically integrated the alternative concept into their situation model only in the native language, but not during L2 comprehension. Crucially, children struggled to do so in both languages. In contrast, the P600 suggested that children in the native language and adolescents in both languages performed semantic reanalyses by reducing interference from the no longer valid initial interpretation. Our findings indicate a complex interplay between development and bilingualism in the ability to revise a situation model during text comprehension.