Eye gaze as a window into good-enough processing: Sentence comprehension by Mandarin-Chinese-speaking learners of Korean

The present study examines how Mandarin-Chinese-speaking learners of Korean comprehend clausal constructions expressing transitivity within a good-enough processing framework. Using picture selection with webcam eye-tracking, we compare learners with native Korean speakers in two studies. Study 1 crosses voice (active vs passive), word order (canonical vs scrambled), and verb position (verb-final vs verb-initial). Learners are accurate for canonical actives but perform below chance on passives and show temporally divergent gaze trajectories in critical regions, consistent with a persistent Agent-First bias and limited use of case-marking and passive morphology. Study 2 obscures case markers to isolate verbal morphology; learners again favour agent-first interpretations and show only weak sensitivity to passive morphology. Across the two studies, proficiency predicts more target-like reanalysis, especially in non-canonical configurations. These findings highlight the role of cue alignment and (re)weighting in L2-acquisition pathways and a proficiency-mediated shift towards algorithmic parsing, suggesting the dynamic and adaptive nature of L2 good-enough processing.