Event-related potentials to single-letters and second-language reading proficiency

Abstract Proficient reading in a second language (L2) requires efficient processing of its orthographic symbols. We examined the relationship between a reader’s proficiency in English and electrophysiological markers of efficiency while processing English and Chinese orthographies. We recruited 49 adult late Chinese learners of English, who participated in an implicit single-letter processing task (alphabet letters vs. pseudoletters) and Chinese character processing task (characters vs. pseudocharacters) while an electroencephalogram measured their evoked potentials. The difference between letters and pseudoletters was manifested in the N170 and P2 ranges in a posterior-occipital distribution. The N170 pseudoletter effect in the left hemisphere correlated with L2 proficiency. We concluded that single-letter processing in L2 is still gaining efficiency as they learn to read English as a late-learn language. Future cross-linguistic investigations are necessary to determine whether this L2 effect generalizes to other L2 populations.