In order to investigate second language (L2) processing at ultimate attainment, 20
first language (L1) English and 20 L1 Dutch advanced to near-native speakers of
German as well as 20 native Germans were tested in two experiments on subject-object
ambiguities in German. The results from a self-paced reading task and a speeded
acceptability judgement task show that the lower-proficient advanced learners in
this study display the same processing preferences as natives in reading accuracy
yet fail to demonstrate differential response latencies associated with native
syntactic reanalysis. By contrast, near-native speakers of either L1 converge on
incremental native reanalysis patterns. Together, the findings highlight the role of
proficiency for processing the target language since it is only at near-native
levels of proficiency that non-natives converge on native-like parsing. The results
support the view that endstate non-native processing and native processing are
qualitatively identical.
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