ИСТИНА

The aim of our work was to create a method for testing the level of knowledge of English language of Russian students using eye-tracking technology. Three types of images were constructed consisting of: 1) two English words one with correct-incorrect spelling located right and left of the fixation point; 2) the English word and four (1 correct and 3 incorrect) translations into Russian; 3) the Russian word and four (1 correct and 3 incorrect) translations into English. The images were presented for 5000 ms. The participant’s task was to choose the right variant. During the execution eye movements were recorded. The results showed that fixation durations and fixation counts during the fixation on the correct word were significantly larger than on the misspelled word. The same eye activity was shown during the choice of correct word translation into Russian or English. Also it was revealed that the first fixation on some word (correct or not) was longer than on the rest variants. Our results were in good agreement with the E-Z Reader Model (Reichle et al. 1998). Thus eye movement characteristics allow developing the method of testing the level of knowledge of a foreign language.