bridging programs

How does English reading development unfold *after* a bridging (EAP) program ends? We followed the same international students across ~4 years and used eye-tracking to watch L2 reading development unfold in real time. We asked: *Which skills grow fastest during the EAP program, and which changes persist (or shift) once students move into undergraduate study?* The figure shows one example—**word skipping**—across three timepoints. This project was published in [Reading and Writing](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11145-025-10664-6).

Do students with lower incoming reading scores *catch up* during an English-for-Academic-Purposes (EAP) bridging program—or does the gap stay the same? We tracked **405** Chinese-speaking students across a **28-week** program using **eye-tracking during passage reading** plus comprehension questions. Using incoming **IELTS Reading** scores as a baseline, we found clear overall improvement in reading efficiency and comprehension—but the growth trajectories were **parallel across ability levels**, meaning the gap neither widened nor closed (a **stable change** pattern). This project was published in [Bilingualism: Language & Cognition](https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728922000542)