The effect of mode of presentation on EFL learners’ cognitive processing of ambiguous relative clauses

Abstract The present study aimed to identify whether different modes of presentation have an effect on the cognitive processing of ambiguous relative clauses (RCs) in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners. The study used different online modes of presentation, in which the ambiguous RCs were presented in different conditions to the participants. The participants were 135 L1-Persian EFL learners who were randomly assigned to three modes of presentation, namely online ( n = 45), timed online ( n = 45), and self-paced online ( n = 45). The stimuli used in the study were structurally ambiguous RCs. The participants were asked to read the sentences appearing on the laptop monitor one by one and decide whether the RC was related to any of the noun phrases. Using the software PsychoPy , error rates were measured to determine the effect of mode of presentation on the EFL learners’ cognitive processing of ambiguous RCs. The data revealed that the mode of presentation had a significant effect on their cognitive processing of ambiguous RCs. The study results underscore the notion that mode of presentation has a strong effect on cognitive processing of ambiguous RCs in second language education.