O PROCESSAMENTO DE NARRATIVAS EM SEGUNDA LÍNGUA: UM ESTUDO COM fNIRS

Abstract

! is article presents the results of a study which investigated theperformance of native speakers of English (L1) when reading texts in French(L2), language in which they had intermediate pro" ciency. ! e study investi-gated, in relation to behavioral performance, these readers’ accuracy and re-sponse times when processing the text at three di# erent levels (the macro- andthe micro-structure and the situational model), whereas, with respect to brainactivity, the study analyzed the participation of the two cerebral hemispheresin processing the three levels mentioned above, using the fNIRS (functionalNear-Infrared Spectroscopy) neuroimaging tool. ! e behavioral results showstatistically signi" cant di# erences between the two groups. ! e neuroimag-ing results indicate a statistically signi" cant participation of the two regionsof interest in temporal areas of the right hemisphere during processing at themacro-structure, as well as of temporal and frontal regions in the le$ hemi-sphere in comprehension at the microstructure.