Eye and Head Movement Tracking in Identifying Cognitive Challenges in Acquisition of Second Language Intonation

This study aims to explore the relationship between the semantic content of an utterance and its impact on the mental activity of individuals acquiring second language intonation. A neurolinguistic experiment was conducted to confirm the correlation between gaze direction/head movements and various cognitive tasks. The experimental framework involves a series of questions with varying intonational patterns and semantic contents. An eye-tracker was used to monitor the direction of the respondents’ gaze and head movements while they were listening and repeating a set of English utterances designed to practice various intonational patterns. It was established that at the listening and production stages when they encountered utterances, requiring significant cognitive effort to be comprehended, participants exhibited a higher number of saccades compared to utterances with a lower cognitive load. A tendency for gaze to move towards a specific area of the visual space was observed only when the utterance did not allow for multiple semantic interpretations. It was demonstrated that when participants were compelled to focus on the intonational contour of an utterance, they applied less cognitive effort to its semantic processing, which resulted in a reduction of the areas within the visual space where their gaze was fixed.

neurolinguistics, eye tracking, saccade, semantic component, intonation of the target language