This study investigates two models of L2 vocabulary acquisition at an advanced L2 level: L1 lemma mediation and the revised hierarchical models. Proponents of the L1 lemma mediation model postulate that advanced L2 learners map L2 words to L1 meanings or concepts, whereas proponents of the revised hierarchical model argue that the increasing experience in L2 helps learners remap the L2 words to their L2 meanings. In this study, 26 proficient Arab L2 speakers of English and 26 English native speakers were given 76 semantically related word pairs and were instructed to rate their semantic relatedness on a 5-point Likert scale as quickly as possible. It was found that word pairs sharing the same Arabic translations had been rated significantly higher than word pairs not sharing the same Arabic translations. The results supported the L1 lemma model-namely, even advanced L2 learners still rely on their L1 to access the meanings of L2 words.
According to the first language (L1) lemma mediation hypothesis, second language learners, regardless of their level of second language (L2) proficiency, access the meaning of L2 words via their first language (Jiang, 2004). To test this hypothesis, a semantic judgment task was conducted on 30 advanced Arab speakers of English, in which they were presented with 86 pairs of English words and had to decide whether each pair was semantically related. Some semantically related pairs are classified as same translation pairs because their members share the same L1 translation, whereas others are semantically related but do not share the same L1 translation, hence they are classified as different translation pairs. Two instruments were used to record the reaction times and determine accuracy: DMDX and Gorilla. The results revealed that the highly proficient L2 speakers rated same translation pairs as semantically related significantly faster than their responses to different translation pairs. When compared with the 28 native speakers’ results, there was a significant difference in the reaction times of the two groups. This provides evidence that the underlying processes of L1 and L2 vocabulary acquisition is substantially different: L2 learners rely on their well-established conceptual system to access the meaning of L2 words.
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