Selective attention of L2 learners in task-based reading online

Selective attention to task-relevant content is an essential strategy for readers. There is
evidence that proficient readers more often consider their purpose and focus attention
selectively. However, eye tracking research has revealed several limitations with survey
data on reading strategies, and few second language (L2) reading studies have explicitly
examined selective attention. This study includes two experiments utilizing eye tracking
to determine how Japanese university-aged learners read an online text to research
specific information. The first experiment evaluates the reading strategies of the
participants and examines the effect on task performance. The second experiment
investigates the effect of strategy training. The eye tracking results in experiment one
suggested that many participants did not display strategic competence. Selective attention
and the number of reading strategies identified in the data correlated with taskperformance. The second experiment revealed that strategy training increased the use of
selective attention and improved task performance.