The aim of the present study is to investigate the use of glosses as a means to involve the learners’ whole language repertoire in the L3 learning process, resulting in the activation of languages that imply different levels of cognitive effort ( Boers, 2022 ). Proficient participants in L2 English were assigned to three experimental groups, each exposed to a version of an Italian TL graded reader, with glosses requiring a growing amount of cognitive engagement: (a) English glosses; (b) Italian glosses; (c) glosses in a romance language (Portuguese), unknown but intercomprehensible to the learners; and (d) no glosses (baseline group). Results show a possible trade-off effect of glosses for comprehension, and vocabulary learning gains on both implicit and explicit knowledge tests. Moreover, eye-tracking data point to glosses being an effective tool for increasing cognitive engagement with selected items in the text, despite high skipping rates on the glosses themselves show the risk of cognitive overload, leading to avoidance strategies.
Ilaria Borro (Sat,) studied this question.