The Influence of L1 Semantic Transfer on the Development of the L2 Mental Lexicon

• TAGASHIRA Kenji

  Hiroshima University

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

• 日本人EFL学習者のL2心的辞書におけるL1意味転移の影響

Abstract

The Semantic Transfer Hypothesis (Jiang, 2000), formulated to explain a stage of vocabulary development in the second language (L2) mental lexicon, claims that learners automatically exploit first language (L1) semantic information in L2 use. It is claimed that existing L1 semantic information is automatically detected and new foreign language (FL) forms are subordinately connected in the L2 mental lexicon. In this study, English word pairs sharing the same L1 translation equivalent (Japanese) and word pairs that have different L1 translations were presented to Japanese advanced EFL learners in a semantic judgment task. Participants reported significantly faster reaction times (RTs) and less error percentage with the same translation pairs than with different ones. These results--along with the measure of the degree of semantic relatedness between each pair--were interpreted as evidence for the automatic use of L1 semantic information in the L2 mental lexicon.

Journal

• ARELE: Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan

  ARELE: Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan 18 (0), 141-150, 2007

  The Japan Society of English Language Education

Details

• CRID: 1390001205822135168
• NII Article ID: 110008512328
• DOI: 10.20581/arele.18.0_141
• ISSN: 24320412
• ISSN: 13448560
• Text Lang: en
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed