Processing of Gender Agreement in Russian as a Foreign Versus Native Language

The investigation of linguistic processing poses the fundamental question of whether individuals learning a second language (L2) rely on the same cognitive mechanisms as those who are native (L1) speakers. This question is particularly relevant in the context of grammatical processing, including gender processing. However, the discourse on gender processing among nonnative speakers is notably lacking. The present study examines potential distinctions in gender processing, using Russian as a foreign language as a case study. It draws parallels between L2 and native speakers. The primary objective is to investigate potential differences when processing different genders in nonnative Russian speakers and to compare them to those found in native Russian speakers and across different languages. The self-paced reading (SPR) method is used to investigate the impact of gender processing in second language speakers. The observed differences in processing were consistent with the findings of previous cross-linguistic L2 comparisons at certain point.