Влияние лингвистических факторов и класса обучения на окуломоторную активность младшеклассников при чтении учебных текстов

Reading is a complex, multi-component process. Reading development is associated with the transition from sublexical to lexical reading. A large amount of data has been accumulated on eye movements during the development of reading skill, but most of the research has been conducted on words or sentences rather than texts. The issue of the influence of word frequency and word length when reading text in the context of reading skill development also remains poorly understood. The present study is intended to fill this gap.Fifty-three pupils of 1st-3rd grades participated in the study. Six texts from Russian language textbooks for grades 2-3 were used. The participants were asked to read the texts aloud and at maximum speed, while at the same time the oculomotor activity was recorded using an eye tracker.Varying in a number of parameters from the first to the third class was recorded. A significant difference in the average duration of fixations is observed only between the first and third grades. The third grade students have an advantage at the level of linguistic processing compared to the first grade, and the absence of differences in the second grade suggests a high variability of this group at this stage of development. In the parameters "number of fixations" and "duration of word viewing", the first grade showed a significant difference from the second and third grades. It is likely that the linguistic processing skill develops later, in contrast to the operant field, which allows reading the word in fewer fixations. No age differences were found in word skipping and regression movements: participants read texts aloud, which reduces the probability of word skipping and regressions back.Word length had a significant effect on almost all oculomotor parameters, while frequency showed no significant effect. The interaction of frequency with word length showed a significant effect on the parameters of fixation duration and word reading time. These results may be related both to the specifics of reading acquisition in Russian and the cognitive load of reading aloud.