The field of vocabulary research is witnessing a growing interest in the use of eye-tracking to investigate topics that have traditionally been examined using offline measures, providing new insights into the processing and learning of vocabulary. During an eye-tracking experiment, participants’ eye movements are recorded while they attend to written or auditory input, resulting in a rich record of online processing behaviour. Because of its many benefits, eye-tracking is becoming a major research technique in vocabulary research. However, before this emerging trend of eye-tracking based vocabulary research continues to proliferate, it is important to step back and reflect on what current studies have shown about the processing and learning of vocabulary, and the ways in which we can use the technique in future research. To this aim, the present paper provides a comprehensive overview of current eye-tracking research findings, both in terms of the processing and learning of single words and formulaic sequences. Current research gaps and potential avenues for future research are also discussed.
Balota, D., Pollatsek, A., & Rayner, K. (1985). The interaction of contextual constraints and parafoveal visual information in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 171, 364–390.
Bisson, M. -J., Van Heuven, W., Conklin, K., & Tunney, R. (2015). The role of verbal and pictorial information in multi-modal incidental acquisition of foreign language vocabulary. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 68(7), 1306–1326.
Carpenter, P., & Just, M. (1983). What your eyes do while your mind is reading. In K. Rayner (Ed.), Eye movements in reading: Perceptual and language processes (pp. 275–307). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Carreiras, M., Perea, M., & Grainger, J. (1997). Effects of orthographic neighborhood in visual word recognition: Cross-task comparisons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 231, 857–871.
Carrol, G., & Conklin, K. (2015). Cross language priming extends to formulaic units: Evidence from eye tracking suggests that this idea “has legs”. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 20(2), 299–317.
Carrol, G., Conklin, K., & Gyllstad, H. (2016). Found in translation: The influence of L1 on the processing of idioms in L2. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 38(3), 403–443.
Chaffin, R., Morris, R. K., & Seely, R. E. (2001). Learning new word meanings from context: A study of eye movements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 271, 225–235.
Choi, S. (2017). Processing and learning of enhanced English collocations: An eye-movement study. Language Teaching Research, 21(3), 403–426.
Cieslicka, A. (2006). Literal salience in on-line processing of idiomatic expressions by second language learners. Second Language Research, 221, 115–144.
Coltheart, M., Davelaar, E., Jonasson, J. T., & Besner, D. (1977). Access to the internal lexicon. In S. Dornic (Ed.), Attention and performance VI1 (pp. 535–555). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Conklin, K., & Pellicer-Sánchez, A. (2016). Using eye-tracking in applied linguistics and second language research. Second Language Research, 32(3), 453–467.
Cop, U., Dirix, N., Drieghe, D., & Duyck, W. (2017). Presenting GECO: An eye-tracking corpus of monolingual and bilingual sentence reading. Behavior Research Methods, 49(2), 602–615.
Desmet, T., & Duyck, W. (2007). Bilingual language processing. Language and Linguistics Compass, 1(3), 168–194.
Dirix, N., Cop, U., Drieghe, D., Duyck, W., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2017). Cross-lingual neighborhood effects in generalized lexical decision and natural reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 43(6), 887–915.
Duyck, W., Van Assche, E., Drighe, D., & Hartsuiker, R. (2007). Visual word recognition by bilinguals in a sentence context: Evidence for nonselective lexical access. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 33(4), 663–679.
Elgort, I., Brysbaert, M., Stevens, M., & Van Assche, E. (2017). Contextual word learning during reading in a second language: An eye movement study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1–26.
Godfroid, A., Boers, F., & Housen, A. (2013). An eye for words: Gauging the role of attention in incidental L2 vocabulary acquisition by means of eye tracking. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 351, 483–517.
Grainger, J., O’regan, J. K., Jacobs, A. M., & Segui, J. (1989). On the role of competing word units in visual word recognition: The neighborhood frequency effect. Perception & Psychophysics, 45(3), 189–195.
Inhoff, A. W., & Rayner, K. (1986). Parafoveal word processing during eye fixations in reading: Effects of word frequency. Perception and Psychophysics, 401, 431–439.
Joseph, H. S. S. L., Wonnacott, E., Forber, P., & Nation, K. (2014). Becoming a written word: Eye movements reveal order of acquisition effects following incidental exposure to new words during silent reading. Cognition, 1331, 238–248.
Kliegl, R., Grabner, E., Rolfs, M., & Engbert, R. (2004). Length, frequency, and predictability effects of words on eye movements in reading. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 161, 262–284.
Lemhöfer, K., Dijkstra, T., & Michel, M. C. (2004). Three languages, one echo: Cognate effects in trilingual word recognition. Language and Cognitive Processes, 191, 585–611.
Libben, M. R., & Titone, D. A. (2009). Bilingual lexical access in context: Evidence from eye movements during reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 351, 381–390.
Lowell, R., & Morris, R. K. (2014). Word length effects on novel words: Evidence from eye movements. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 761, 179–189.
McConkie, G., & Rayner, K. (1975). The span of the effective stimulus during a fixation in reading. Perception and Psychophysics, 171, 578–586.
Mohamed, A. A. (2015). The roles of context and repetition in incidental vocabulary acquisition from L2 reading: An eye movement study (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Michigan State University.
Mohamed, A. A. (2017). Exposure frequency in L2 reading. An eye-movement perspective of incidental vocabulary learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition. Online first view,
Molinaro, N., Canal, P., Vespignani, F., Pesciarelli, F., & Cacciari, C. (2013). Are complex function words processed as semantically empty strings? A reading time and ERP study of collocational complex Prepositions. Language and Cognitive Processes, 28(6), 762–788.
Montero Perez, M., Peters, E., & Desmet, P. (2015). Enhancing vocabulary learning through captioned video: An eye-tracking study. The Modern Language Journal, 99(2), 308–328.
Pellicer-Sánchez, A. (2016). Incidental L2 vocabulary acquisition from and while reading: An eye tracking study. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 381, 97–130.
Pellicer-Sánchez, A., & Siyanova-Chanturia, A.An eye-tracking investigation of incidental collocation learning during reading. Paper presented at the Annual conference of the American Association of Applied Linguistics, 8–12 April 2016, Orlando, Florida.
Perea, M., & Pollatsek, A. (1998). The effects of neighborhood frequency in reading and lexical decision. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 241, 767–779.
Pollatsek, A., Perea, M., & Binder, K. (1999). The effects of “neighborhood size” in reading and lexical decision. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 251, 1142–1158.
Radach, R., & Kennedy, A. (2004). Theoretical perspectives on eye movements in reading: Past controversies, current issues, and an agenda for the future. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 161, 3–26.
Rayner, K. (2009). The 35th Sir Frederick Bartlett Lecture: Eye movements and attention during reading, scene perception, and visual search. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 621, 1457–1506.
Rayner, K., & Bertera, J. H. (1979). Reading without a fovea. Science, 2061, 468–69.
Rayner, K., & Duffy, S. (1986). Lexical complexity and fixation times in reading: Effects of word frequency, verb complexity, and lexical ambiguity. Memory and Cognition, 141, 191–201.
Rayner, K., & Well, A. (1996). Effects of contextual constraint on eye movements in reading: A further examination. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 31, 504–509.
Roberts, L., & Siyanova-Chanturia, A. (2013). Using eye-tracking to investigate topics in L2 acquisition and L2 sentence and discourse processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 35(2), 213–235.
Siyanova-Chanturia, A., Conklin, K., & Schmitt, N. (2011a). Adding more fuel to the fire: An eye-tracking study of idiom processing by native and nonnative speakers. Second Language Research, 271, 251–272.
Siyanova-Chanturia, A., Conklin, K., & van Heuven, W. (2011b). Seeing a phrase ‘time and again’ matters: The role of phrasal frequency in the processing of multi-word sequences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Language, Memory and Cognition, 371, 776–84.
Titone, D., Libben, M., Mercier, J., Whitford, V., & Pivneva, I. (2011). Bilingual lexical access during L1 sentence reading: The effects of L2 knowledge, semantic constraint, and L1-L2intermixing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 371, 1412–1431.
Van Assche, E., Drieghe, D., Duyck, W., Welvaert, M., & Hartsuiker, R. J. (2011). The influence of semantic constraints on bilingual word recognition during sentence reading. Journal of Memory and Language, 641, 88–107.
Van Assche, E., Duyck, W., Hartsuiker, R. J., & Diependaele, K. (2009). Does bilingualism change native-language reading?Psychological Science, 201, 923–927.
Van Heuven, W. J. B., Dijkstra, T., & Grainger, J. (1998). Orthographic neighborhood effects in bilingual word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 391, 458–483.
Vilkaite, L. (2016). Are nonadjacent collocations processed faster?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 42(10), 1632–1642.
Vilkaite, L., & Schmitt, N. (2017). Reading collocations in an L2: Do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations?Applied Linguistics.
Von Studnitz, R. E., & Green, D. W. (2002). The cost of switching language in a semantic categorization task. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 51, 241–251.
Whitford, V., & Titone, D. (2012). Second language experience modulates first- and second- language word frequency effects: Evidence from eye movement measures of natural paragraph reading. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 191, 73–80.
Whitford, V., Pivneva, I. & Titone, D. (2016). Eye movement methods to investigate bilingual reading. In R. R. Heredia, J. Altarriba & A. B. Cieślicka (Eds.), Methods in bilingual reading comprehension research (pp. 183–211). Dordrecht: Springer.
William, R. S., & Morris, R. K. (2004). Eye movements, word familiarity, and vocabulary acquisition. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 161, 312–339.
Wolter, B., & Gyllstad, H. (2011). Collocational links in the L2 mental lexicon and the influence of L1 intralexical knowledge. Applied Linguistics, 321, 430–449.
Wolter, B., & Yamashita, J. (2015). Processing collocations in a second language: a case of first language activation?Applied Psycholinguistics, 361, 1193–1221.
Cited by (18)
Cited by 18 other publications
Fioravanti, Irene & Anna Siyanova-Chanturia
2024. Eye movements in the investigation of different properties of multi-word expressions: A systematic review. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 3:1 ► pp. 100092 ff.
Hou, Jiarui, James F. Lee & Stephen Doherty
2024. Attentional differences in L2 learners’ word learning strategies between mobile-assisted and in-print reading: An eye tracking study. Computer Assisted Language Learning► pp. 1 ff.
Huang, Lingshan & Jingyang Jiang
2024. How do L1 glosses affect EFL learners’ reading comprehension performance? An eye-tracking study. Linguistics Vanguard 10:1 ► pp. 321 ff.
2024. TECO: An Eye-tracking Corpus of Japanese L2 English Learners’ Text Reading. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics 3:2 ► pp. 100123 ff.
Ryu, Hyeran & Sungmook Choi
2024. Metalinguistic explanations and their impact on incidental grammar acquisition: An eye-movement study. Language Teaching Research
Valentini, Alessandra, Rachel E. Pye, Carmel Houston‐Price, Jessie Ricketts & Julie A. Kirkby
2024. Online Processing Shows Advantages of Bimodal Listening‐While‐Reading for Vocabulary Learning: An Eye‐Tracking Study. Reading Research Quarterly 59:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
Wang, Yu & Min Gui
2024. Unveiling cognitive activities associated with longer reading times on unknown words in L2 reading: An eye-tracking case study. System 123 ► pp. 103359 ff.
Kim, Hayoung, Sungmook Choi, Soo-Ok Kweon & Kathy Conklin
2023. Effects of announcing a vocabulary test before reading a glossed text on reading behaviors and vocabulary acquisition: An eye-tracking study. PLOS ONE 18:1 ► pp. e0280552 ff.
2023. The Landscape of Vocabulary Acquisition Research: A Psycholinguistic Exploration through Citation Metrics. PSYCHOLINGUISTICS 34:2 ► pp. 48 ff.
Andras, Filip, Marta Rivera, Teresa Bajo, Paola E Dussias & Daniela Paolieri
2022. Cognate facilitation effect during auditory comprehension of a second language: A visual world eye-tracking study. International Journal of Bilingualism 26:4 ► pp. 405 ff.
Kang, Hyeonah, Soo-Ok Kweon & Sungmook Choi
2022. Using eye-tracking to examine the role of first and second language glosses. Language Teaching Research 26:6 ► pp. 1252 ff.
Malagnini, Francesca & Irene Fioravanti
2022. Tra testo, lessico e morfosintassi: analisi descrittiva di testi di italiano L2. Cuadernos de Filología Italiana 29 ► pp. 181 ff.
Serra, Judit & Roger Gilabert
2021. Algorithmic versus teacher‐led sequencing in a digital serious game and the development of second language reading fluency and accuracy. British Journal of Educational Technology 52:5 ► pp. 1898 ff.
Jiang, Shang, Xin Jiang & Anna Siyanova-Chanturia
2020. The processing of multiword expressions in children and adults: An eye-tracking study of Chinese. Applied Psycholinguistics 41:4 ► pp. 901 ff.
Pellicer-Sánchez, Ana
2020. Expanding English Vocabulary Knowledge through Reading: Insights from Eye-tracking Studies. RELC Journal 51:1 ► pp. 134 ff.
Montero Perez, Maribel
2019. Pre-learning vocabulary before viewing captioned video: an eye-tracking study. The Language Learning Journal 47:4 ► pp. 460 ff.
2019. The role of Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) as sensitive measures in L2 vocabulary acquisition research. Journal of the European Second Language Association 3:1 ► pp. 35 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 january 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.