Previous research has demonstrated that literate adults activate orthographic representations to map spoken words onto printed referents as they hear a word. This study examined the time course of orthographic activation during spoken-word recognition in L2 context, taking into account of L2 proficiency.

We used the printed-word visual-world paradigm, in which participants saw four words on a computer screen and clicked on the word that matched spoken input. Twenty-one native Japanese speakers and 55 learners of Japanese with the L1 English background took part in this study.

The eye-movement data were analyzed using time-dependent mixed-effect logistic regression models. Our models included time and proficiency as fixed effects and participants and item as random effects.

The pattern of the results identified the activation of orthography during speech processing by native Japanese speakers. The results from the L2 learner group showed that L2 proficiency was attributed to word recognition efficacy.

This study is the first to employ the printed-word visual-world paradigm to track L2 learners’ real-time orthographic activations of Japanese hiragana.

The pattern of the results confirms the applicability of the printed-word variant of the visual-world paradigm in L2 research, emphasizing L2 proficiency as an important factor in the integration of orthographic and phonological information.