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Discourse Processing Effort and Perceptions of Comprehensibility in Nonnative Discourse

The Effect of Ordering and Interpretive Cues Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Andrea Tyler  and
John Bro
Andrea Tyler
Affiliation:
Program in Linguistics, University of Florida
John Bro
Affiliation:
Program in Linguistics, University of Florida
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Abstract

The study reported here extends Tyler and Bro's (1992) investigation of the sources of native speakers' perceptions of incoherence in English text produced by nonnative speakers. Using paper-and-pencil tasks, the original study examined two competing hypotheses: (a) The primary source of interference was the order in which the ideas were presented versus (b) the primary source of interference was mismatches in discourse structuring cues. They found no effect for order of ideas but a strong effect of discourse structuring cues. In the present study, 80 subjects were tested on the same texts as those used in Tyler and Bro (1992) but using microcomputers. Subjects rated the text for comprehensibility and answered three questions concerning the propositional content. The computer format represented a more sensitive measure of subjects' reactions to the text because it did not allow looking back and because it provided information concerning differences in reading time for each manipulation. Once again, the results of the comprehensibility ratings showed a strong effect for miscues and no significant effect for order of ideas. Results of the true/false questions indicated that presence of miscues affected subjects' comprehension of the propositional content but that order of ideas had no discernible effect. Finally, reading time results also showed a strong effect for miscues and a mixed effect for order of ideas, suggesting that order of ideas does make a minor contribution to comprehensibility.

Type
Replication Study
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 505 - 522
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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