New global research shows eye movements reveal how native languages shape reading

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New global research shows eye movements reveal how native languages shape reading
Published: November 9, 2025 10:17am EST

Victor Kuperman
Professor, Department of Linguistics and Languages, McMaster University
Nadia Lana
PhD Candidate, Cognitive Science, McMaster University
Olga Parshina
Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology, Middlebury College


(The Conversation) Reading is a complex cognitive skill that predicts career prospects and social mobility throughout our lifetimes. For newcomers to a country, success often depends on learning to read fluently in a new language.

In fact, language proficiency, including reading fluency, has been found to be the most important factor for successful employment and social participation.

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Writing systems across the world

The foundation of our scientific understanding of the reading process has been narrow, with a majority of studies focusing on reading in English.

But languages are not all written the same way. Some writing systems use letters (like English, Turkish), others use logographs (Chinese, Japanese), syllable characters (Hindi), and more. Some languages are read left to right (Russian, Spanish), and some right to left (Arabic, Hebrew).

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One key finding has been that the way someone reads in their first language leaves traces on their second language. In fact, the study reports that approximately half of the variance in eye movement measures in the second language is explained by respective measures in the first language. .................(more)

https://theconversation.com/new-global-research-shows-eye-movements-reveal-how-native-languages-shape-reading-268698