Effects Of Text Orientation On Undergraduates’ Chinese And Japanese Reading:Evidence From Eye Movements

It’s debatable whether Chinese and Japanese sentences are suited for being written in vertical orientation.So far the rightward horizontal alignment has gained popularity,but there is no evidence suggesting a processing advantage for horizontal over vertical reading of Chinese or Japanese texts.The present study compared horizontal and vertical eye movements of Chinese undergraduates during reading of Chinese and Japanese texts to test the effect of text orientation on reading,and further explore the influence factors of the text-orientation effect,especially the influence of the reading practice on the text-orientation effect.Two experiments were planned to conduct a cross-linguistic study between Chinese and Japanese in respect of the text-orientation on Chinese undergraduates’ reading.In Experiment 1,participants were Japanese major undergraduates in China,who are capable of reading both Chinese and Japanese texts.2(character type:Chinese vs.Japanese)× 2(text orientation: horizontal vs.vertical)within-subjects design was adopted to examine the text-orientation effect on reading and its difference between Chinese and Japanese by comparing horizontal and vertical eye-movements of reading.In Experiment 2,participants included a group of Japanese major undergraduates who had received vertical reading training in studying Japanese,and a set of non-Japanese major undergraduates without vertical reading training.2(subject type: Japanese major undergraduates with vertical reading training vs.non-Japanese major undergraduates without vertical reading training)× 2(text orientation:horizontal vs.vertical)mixed design was employed.Among the two independent variables,subject type was between-subjects design,and text orientation was within-subjects design.The two groups of subjects’ eye movements were recorded and compared in reading Chinese texts presented both horizontally and vertically to investigate the influence of reading practice on the text-orientation effect.The following conclusions were obtained.(1)The character-type effect is significant.Chinese undergraduates are more efficient at reading Chinese than Japanese texts.(2)The text-orientation effect is significant.Chinese undergraduates are more efficient at reading horizontally than vertically.(3)There is an interactive effectbetween character type and text orientation.The text-orientation effect is more significant on reading of Chinese than Japanese texts among Chinese undergraduates.(4)Reading habits and experience have an influence on text-orientation effect.The extensive reading experience in horizontal direction improves the efficiency of horizontal reading among Chinese undergraduates.(5)The vertical reading training has no effect on reading of vertically arranged Chinese texts among Chinese undergraduates.