Lexical disambiguation during reading comprehension in English as a foreign language

The aim of this study is to analyze lexical disambiguation during reading comprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL). It is known that in order to disambiguate a word the reader usually relies on the context, thus, the research is theoretically based on the definition of context, and count...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Riess, Adriana Blanco, Gabriel, Rosângela
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2019
Country:Brasil
Institution:Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS)
Repository:Letras de Hoje (Online)
Language:Portuguese
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br:article/32529
Online Access:https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/fale/article/view/32529
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Lexical disambiguation. Reading comprehension. Eye tracking.
Desambiguación lexical. Comprensión lectora. Eye tracking.
Desambiguação lexical. Compreensão leitora. Eye tracking.
Description
Summary:The aim of this study is to analyze lexical disambiguation during reading comprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL). It is known that in order to disambiguate a word the reader usually relies on the context, thus, the research is theoretically based on the definition of context, and counts on a lexical theory named Lexical Quality Hypothesis (HQL) that explains how the characteristics of a word (phonology and semantics, for example) are a fundamental part of reading comprehension. This study integrates a larger project still in progress, however, a case study is presented in order to analyze the ambiguity in the words record and track in different contexts of use. Preliminary results show that the characteristics of words, as well as the different types of context, are not unrelated to the phenomenon of disambiguation, although the reader is not always aware of the need to disambiguate even he/she understands what was read.