EFL learners’ lexical availability: Effect of L1 background and prompt

Abstract

Lexical availability studies provide valuable insights into learners’ breadth and depth of controlled productive vocabulary, and structure of their lexicon. Yet, little is known about the performance of different-L1 learners on different prompts. Likewise, this study compared the available lexicon of three different-L1 groups of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) (L1-Persian, L1-Arabic, and L1-Turkish) to explore whether first language (L1) background and type of prompt (concrete vs. abstract) yield quantitative and qualitative differences in retrieving available lexicon. An online New Vocabulary Levels Test and a lexical availability task were administered to 116 tertiary different-L1 EFL learners. Studying concrete and abstract prompts would uncover the intricate cognitive processes in word processing and retrieval, and semantic organization. The findings revealed that both L1 background and type of prompt impacted their lexical availability output, resulting in differences between the groups in the words generated for different prompts on the task. L1-Persian learners outperformed L1-Arabic and L1-Turkish learners in terms of number and quality of the words for the task. Moreover, the type of prompt meaningfully interacted with L1 background in eliciting words on the task; the three groups differed in word retrieval on both prompts but generated more words on concrete, than abstract, prompts. Thus, EFL teachers and materials developers can improve vocabulary instruction via considering L1 background in selecting or designing teaching materials or syllabi. Additionally, more tasks with abstract words would increase exposure to such words, and thus their ease in retrieval.