Intercomprehension in Italian as an unknown language

The present project focuses on the background languages (and other possible strategies, such as context) used in comprehension of written text in Italian. The participants have no previous knowledge of Italian and they have different background languages. The aim is to investigate lexical access (selective versus non-selective) in reading in an unknown language, but also to investigate if there is a difference regarding the different background languages for the correctness of the inferences they make, i.e. which language(s) is the most "helpful" for comprehending Italian as an unknown language.