Cognitive Mechanisms of Referential Ambiguity Resolution in L2 Russian by Chinese Learners: Evidence from Eye-Tracking.

Abstract

A central question in second language (L2) sentence processing concerns how learners resolve referential ambiguity in real time, particularly when cues from their first language (L1) conflict with those of the target language. Given the substantial typological distance between Chinese (an analytic language) and Russian (a highly inflectional language), this study employs eye-tracking methodology to investigate the developmental trajectory of the cognitive mechanisms in referential ambiguity resolution among Chinese learners of Russian. The results revealed proficiency-related differences in ambiguity processing. Both proficiency groups showed increased processing difficulty when encountering ambiguous pronouns, indicating that referential ambiguity imposed a measurable online cost. High-proficiency learners read more efficiently overall, whereas low-proficiency learners showed a stronger first-mention anchoring pattern. These findings suggest that increasing L2 proficiency is associated with changes in processing efficiency and cue weighting during referential resolution. Notably, even high-proficiency learners did not categorically rely on Russian gender agreement to resolve reference in the morphologically disambiguated condition, suggesting that the integration of morphosyntactic cues into real-time reference resolution remains effortful at advanced proficiency. The study contributes eye-tracking evidence on how Chinese-speaking learners manage referential ambiguity in a morphologically rich L2.