Bilingual Language Models Capture Cross-Linguistic Influence in Second-Language Reading

Overview & Synopsis

While monolingual language model (LM) surprisal is widely established as a predictor of reading times, it cannot capture the non-native (L2) reading dynamics that are shaped by the reader's first language (L1). In this work, we investigate whether the cross-lingual transfer within bilingual models aligns with human L1-driven biases during L2 reading. We evaluate bilingual models on eye-tracking data of readers from 12 diverse L1 backgrounds reading English texts. To isolate L1-specific transfer, we compare bilingual models trained on an L1 that matches the readers' L1 background to both a monolingual English baseline and bilingual models trained on other L1s. We demonstrate that matching the readers' L1 improves the prediction of L2 reading times. This predictive advantage is concentrated in late-stage eye-tracking measures, modulated by L1-L2 script overlap, and peaks among intermediate-proficiency readers. These findings provide evidence that bilingual LMs capture aspects of cross-linguistic influence, and that such influence is present in L2 reading behavior.