A Study on the Effects of Teaching Presentation Styles in Bilingual English-Chinese Instruction on Students’ Cognitive Processing Based on Eye-Tracking Technology and Cognitive Load Theory
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Abstract
To address mismatches between bilingual teaching presentation methods and cognitive load, as well as the difficulty of quantifying cognitive processing in English-Chinese bilingual instruction, this study integrates eye-tracking technology with cognitive load theory. Three constraints, namely language difficulty, knowledge type, and student language proficiency, are introduced to construct an analytical framework. A three-dimensional teaching-presentation matrix is first designed to establish quantifiable standards for these constraints. A real-time eye-tracking monitoring system is then developed to extract core metrics such as fixation duration and pupil-diameter variation. These metrics are combined with subjective questionnaires and learning assessments in a controlled university experiment. The results show that under the constraint of B1-level language difficulty, specialized knowledge, and intermediate language proficiency, the “video-based, mixed Chinese-English text, teacher-student interaction” presentation method increases effective fixation duration by 35%, reduces cognitive load by 28%, and improves knowledge retention by 22%. The coefficient of variation in pupil diameter shows a significant positive correlation with cognitive load, with r = 0.72 and p < 0.01, enabling quantitative assessment of cognitive efficiency.
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