Individual Differences in L2 Sentence Processing

This book is intended for readers who are interested in examining Chinese-speaking learners' differences in the ability to comprehend certain self-embedded multiply complex English sentences such as Peter thinks that taking care of himself is necessary surprises the cleaner. Three closely related questions are addressed in the study: (i) what is the relationship between Chinese learners' educational level and their ability in complex English sentence processing? (ii) what is the relationship between working memory capacity and educated Chinese learners' ability in complex English sentence processing? (iii) is there a correlation between educated Chinese learners's L1 proficiency and the ability in complex English sentence processing? The research questions were addressed by firstly providing some background information which was closely related to the research questions; followed by four off-line and three computer-administered self-paced reading experiments.