My PhD student, Takeshi Ishihara, has published his first article in Research Methods in Applied Linguistics! It evaluates the validity of web-based grammaticality judgment and self-paced reading tasks for assessing L2 automatized explicit and implicit grammatical knowledge among young learners.
🧠💻 Can we trust online experiments with young L2 learners?
A new study explored whether web-based reaction-time tasks can reliably assess L2 grammar knowledge in Japanese middle school students learning English. Nearly 200 students completed either in-class or at-home versions of two classic psycholinguistic tasks: a grammaticality judgment task and a self-paced reading task.
✨ What did we find?
- Accuracy was similar in both settings — online testing can work!
- But… reaction times (a key measure of implicit knowledge) were less reliable at home. Students were faster but less consistent, and often missed signs of ungrammaticality.
- Personality matters: traits like neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness influenced who completed the online tasks and how consistently they responded.
👩🏫 Takeaway: Online grammar tasks can assess accuracy, but for reaction-time data, classroom supervision still makes a big difference — especially with younger L2 learners.
🔗 More tools and safeguards are needed if we want to assess L2 processing remotely. But the future of online L2 research is promising!
