ABSTRACT
This chapter reports a methodological synthesis of experimental tasks used in research of automaticity in second language (L2) comprehension. Our survey yielded 34 instances of lexical and 46 grammatical tasks (e.g., primed/non-primed lexical decision, semantic/acceptability judgment, picture–sentence matching, comprehension with eye-tracking, self-paced reading, word-monitoring tasks), which we subsequently classified based on the types of processes being investigated. We synthesized key outcome measures (accuracy, reaction time, and/or coefficient of variability) and the software (e.g., E-prime, DMDX) used in different task types. Our synthesis also revealed several gaps in the L2 research into automaticity, most notably the scarcity of tasks for assessing automaticity in auditory lexical processing. We also present methodological guidelines on how to select experimental tasks for assessing automaticity in L2 studies.
