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1. Eye Movement Traces of Linguistic Knowledge in Native and Non-Native Reading

   https://doi.org/10.1162/opmi_a_00084  

   Berzak, Yevgeni; Levy, Roger (January 2023, Open Mind)

   Abstract The detailed study of eye movements in reading has shed considerable light into how language processing unfolds in real time. Yet eye movements in reading remain inadequately studied in non-native (L2) readers, even though much of the world’s population is multilingual. Here we present a detailed analysis of the quantitative functional influences of word length, frequency, and predictability on eye movement measures in reading in a large, linguistically diverse sample of non-native English readers. We find many similar qualitative effects as in L1 readers, but crucially also a proficiency-sensitive “lexicon-context tradeoff”. The most proficient L2 readers’ eye movements approach an L1 pattern, but as L2 proficiency diminishes, readers’ eye movements become less sensitive to a word’s predictability in context and more sensitive to word frequency, which is context-invariant. This tradeoff supports a rational, experience-dependent account of how context-driven expectations are deployed in L2 language processing. 

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2. Water in the Native World

   https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1936-704X.2020.03328.x  

   Chief, Karletta (April 2020, Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education)
3. Phenology in a warming world: differences between native and non‐native plant species

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13290  

   Zettlemoyer, Meredith A.; Schultheis, Elizabeth H.; Lau, Jennifer A.; Vila, Montserrat (May 2019, Ecology Letters)
4. Pragmatics and social meaning: Understanding under-informativeness in native and non-native speakers

   Fairchild, Sarah; Mathis, Ariel; Papafragou, Anna (December 2019, International journal of cognitive science engineering and technology)

   Foreign-accented non-native speakers sometimes face negative biases compared to native speakers. Here we report an advantage in how comprehenders process the speech of non-native compared to native speakers. In a series of four experiments, we find that under-informative sentences are interpreted differently when attributed to non-native compared to native speakers. Specifically, under-informativeness is more likely to be attributed to inability (rather than unwillingness) to say more in non-native as compared to native speakers. This asymmetry has implications for learning: under-informative teachers are more likely to be given a second chance in case they are non-native speakers of the language (presumably because their prior under-informativeness is less likely to be intentional). Our results suggest strong effects of non-native speech on social-pragmatic inferences. Because these effects emerge for written stimuli, they support theories that stress the role of expectations on non-native comprehension, even in the absence of experience with foreign accents. Finally, our data bear on pragmatic theories of how speaker identity affects language comprehension and show how such theories offer an integrated framework for explaining how non-native language can lead to (sometimes unexpected) social meanings. 

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5. Native Microbes Amplify Native Seedling Establishment and Diversity While Inhibiting a Non-Native Grass

   https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12051184  

   Koziol, Liz; McKenna, Thomas P.; Bever, James D. (March 2023, Plants)

   Although several studies have shown increased native plant establishment with native microbe soil amendments, few studies have investigated how microbes can alter seedling recruitment and establishment in the presence of a non-native competitor. In this study, the effect of microbial communities on seedling biomass and diversity was assessed by seeding pots with both native prairie seeds and a non-native grass that commonly invades US grassland restorations, Setaria faberi. Soil in the pots was inoculated with whole soil collections from ex-arable land, late successional arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi isolated from a nearby tallgrass prairie, with both prairie AM fungi and ex-arable whole soil, or with a sterile soil (control). We hypothesized (1) late successional plants would benefit from native AM fungi, (2) that non-native plants would outcompete native plants in ex-arable soils, and (3) early successional plants would be unresponsive to microbes. Overall, native plant abundance, late successional plant abundance, and total diversity were greatest in the native AM fungi+ ex-arable soil treatment. These increases led to decreased abundance of the non-native grass S. faberi. These results highlight the importance of late successional native microbes on native seed establishment and demonstrate that microbes can be harnessed to improve both plant community diversity and resistance to invasion during the nascent stages of restoration. 

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