Second Language Processing of Filler-Gap Dependencies by Late Learners

Recent evidence suggests that late learners of second and foreign languages (L2), those who begin learning after puberty, differ as to how they comprehend complex sentences in real time compared to native speakers and early L2 learners. One area in which these differences occur is in the processing of non-local dependencies where constituents are not canonically ordered, such as in sentences containing wh-dependencies: The teacher saw which girl the boy pushed ___ yesterday. This paper presents a brief overview of current research investigating this issue. To this end, differences and similarities between how L1 and L2 speakers use lexical and syntactic information to resolve these types of dependencies are discussed. In addition, a current model of L2 sentence processing is discussed with suggestions for future research.