L2 Knowledge of the Obligatory French Subjunctive: Offline Measures and Eye Tracking Compared

Extensive research has shown that second language (L2) learners find it difficult to apply grammatical knowledge during real-time processing, especially when differences exist between the first (L1) and L2. The current study examines extent which British English-speaking of French can their subjunctive whether this ability is modulated by properties L1 grammar, and/or proficiency. Data from an acceptability judgment task eye-tracking reading experiment revealed L2 had subjunctive, but were unable for comprehension. Such findings therefore suggest at least proficiency levels tested in study, largely metalinguistic (explicit) nature reduced lexical access limited computational resources (e.g., working memory) prevented fully utilising representations processing.