ИСТИНА

The aim of our work was to create a method for testing the English language proficiency level of Russian students using eye-tracking technology. Twenty five participants (12M, 13F, 18-26) took part in the experiment. The task consisted of 15 sentences in English with the missing words and four response options (1 correct and 3 incorrect). The participant’s task was to choose a correct response option. The sentences were presented for unlimited time. During the execution eye movements were recorded. The results show that fixation durations and fixation counts during the fixation on the correct response option were significantly larger than on the incorrect response option. Our results are in good agreement with the E-Z Reader Model (Reichle et al. 1998). Thus eye movement characteristics allow to develop the effective method of testing the English language proficiency of Russian students.