ABSTRACT
Learner interaction via written synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC) in their second language (L2) may be facilitative of L2 development, as such interaction heightens the salience of specific aspects of the input learners receive, thus increasing the likelihood that aspects of this input are noticed. This exploratory study aims at establishing whether this heightened salience during SCMC supports lexical alignment. Using eye-tracking technology, we explore what L2 users seem to notice, attend to and align with in the linguistic input from their L2 interlocutor. Analysis of chatlogs for lexical overlap of three or more consecutive words (n-grams) revealed that a limited amount of potentially aligned text received heightened overt visual attention. Qualitative explorations show that SCMC partners do make use of one another's input during task-based SCMC in a way that manifests in their written output. However, it is much less than chat transcripts may suggest.
