Assessing Language Proficiency from Eye Movements in Reading

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new eye-tracking based method to assess second language proficiency by analyzing reading eye movements, showing strong correlation with standard tests and potential for broad application.

Contribution

It presents a novel, stand-alone eye-tracking approach for language proficiency assessment that correlates with and predicts standardized test outcomes.

Findings

Scores strongly correlate with standardized tests

Effective even without prior eye movement data for sentences

Best performance with sentences having existing eye-tracking data

Abstract

We present a novel approach for determining learners' second language proficiency which utilizes behavioral traces of eye movements during reading. Our approach provides stand-alone eyetracking based English proficiency scores which reflect the extent to which the learner's gaze patterns in reading are similar to those of native English speakers. We show that our scores correlate strongly with standardized English proficiency tests. We also demonstrate that gaze information can be used to accurately predict the outcomes of such tests. Our approach yields the strongest performance when the test taker is presented with a suite of sentences for which we have eyetracking data from other readers. However, it remains effective even using eyetracking with sentences for which eye movement data have not been previously collected. By deriving proficiency as an automatic byproduct of eye movements during ordinary reading, our approach offers a potentially valuable new tool for second language proficiency assessment. More broadly, our results open the door to future methods for inferring reader characteristics from the behavioral traces of reading.