Abstract

This study investigates how Italian learners of English as a second language (ESL) process garden-path sentences, with a focus on parsing strategies and comprehension across different CEFR proficiency levels. Participants completed a self-paced reading task, and their performance was assessed through both reading times and comprehension accuracy. The results indicate that advanced learners (C1–C2) demonstrate greater sensitivity to syntactic ambiguity and adjust their reading strategies accordingly, particularly when reanalysis is required. Intermediate learners (B1–B2), by contrast, exhibit more uniform reading patterns across conditions and appear less aware of syntactic cues, leading to lower overall accuracy. Interestingly, sentence length and structure influenced the two groups differently, suggesting distinct processing strategies based on proficiency.

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