L1 Arabic-L2 English speakers use subject-verb agreement cues in real-time comprehension of English

Abstract

Adult and child listeners rapidly use morphosyntactic cues during real-time comprehension of their first language. Later learners, in contrast, may not use cues unless they are also available in their L1. Can L1 Arabic late learners of English use number-marked verbs to anticipate an upcoming noun? Arabic has subject-verb agreement, but does not have an overt present-tense copula. Using a visual-world eye-tracking task, L1 English and L1 Arabic participants heard a sentence (there are the good apples) paired with pictures that were either different or the same in number (2 apples, 1 carrot; 2 apples, 2 carrots). Advantages in different over same trials suggest that both groups use the number-marked verb in real-time comprehension, and that L1 English participants use it in both singular and plural trials, while L1 Arabic only showed evidence in plural trials. Morphosyntactic cue use during comprehension appears possible even with relatively modest overlap between languages.