The Effect of Language Exposure and Word Characteristics on the Arab EFL Learners’ Word Associations

Abstract

The present study investigates the patterns of word associations among Arab EFL learners and compares these patterns with those of native speakers of English. The study also examines the influence of increased language exposure and word characteristics on the learners' association patterns. To this end, 45 native speakers of English and 421 Arab learners of English at a Saudi university with two distinct levels of English language exposure completed a multiple-response word association test and their responses were analyzed, examined and compared. The results revealed strong influence for language exposure and word characteristics on the learners' associations and support a developmental approach to the second language lexicon where an increase in language exposure and word knowledge enhances mental word connectivity and increases its native-like similarity.

Таксономія Асоціацій Провідних Концептів Релігійного Дискурсу

“…Загалом, це метод «виявлення зв'язків уявлень, які зумовлені попереднім досвідом і завдяки яким одне уявлення, що з'являється у свідомості, викликає на основі схожості, суміжності або протилежності (Сурмач, 2012: 22). Асоціативний експеримент, як метод дослідження семантичного простору студентства активно використовують сучасні науковці (Загородня, 2018;El-Dakhs, 2017).…”

A Study on the Developmental Features of Yi Students’ Chinese Mental Lexicon

“…However, under the framework of “syntagmatic-paradigmatic-phonological association” or other similar frameworks ( Fitzpatrick, 2007 ), most of the WAT studies did not single out encyclopedic associations as a category. Most of these studies focused on the comparison and contrast of paradigmatic and syntagmatic associations ( Zhang, 2005 ; Nissen and Henriksen, 2006 ; Fitzpatrick, 2007 ; Xie, 2009 ; Zhang, 2010a , b ; Li and Jiang, 2015 ; El-Dakhs, 2017 ; Wu, 2017 ; Lu and Lim, 2019 ). Whether is encyclopedic association an important means by which L2 mental lexicon is organized needs to be further studied.…”

Edification Dictums in the Language Consciousness of the Kazakh Ethnos

“…Recently updated scientific researches in the field of ethno culturology, social psychology, ethno social psycholinguistics are necessarily to be treated particularly attentively and with an extreme responsibility in relation to the previously investigated research results (Goroshko, 2001(Goroshko, , 2004Dronjic & Helms-Park, 2012). The logical and promising object of scientific research in recent years are the revival of national traditions (see Kent & Rosanoff, 1910a, b;Mikołajczak-Matyja, 2015), the basic elements of culture, the reassessment of spiritual and mental values in the modern period of the construction of sovereign © Абрамова Галина & Дмитрюк Нат алія states, including Kazakhstan (see Abramova, 2019;Arynbayeva & Dmitryuk, 2019;El-Dakhs, 2017;Giles & Maass, 2017;Karimzad & Catedral, 2018;Keblusek, Levesque & de Moissac, 2018 etc. ).…”

“…This idea of differences is highly stressed by Mikołajczak-Matyja (2015), Kheirzadeh andHajiabed (2016), andEl-Dakhs (2017) in functioning the speech of monolinguals and bilinguals and word associations of Arab learners of English as a Foreign Language.…”