L1 lemma mediation in processing L2 word pairs and sentences

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Prior studies have reported that L1 lemma mediation is valid in processing L2 words. On the other hand, this finding has been criticized from a methodological point of view. Therefore, this study investigates L1 lemma mediation by comparing how intermediate and advanced Korean users of English respond to the decontextualized word pairs and contextualized sentence completion items. A two-part lexical judgment questionnaire, which consists of decontextualized word association pairs and contextualized sentence completion items, was distributed to the nine research participants. And the following recall sessions were conducted with the participants to examine their perceived similarity of the word pairs. Findings from the first part of the questionnaire, the word association task, portray that the same translation pairs seem to be more semantically related in comparison to different translation pairs. This result can validate the prior findings regarding the effect of L1 lemma mediation of L2 processing. However, in the sentence completion task, advanced Korean users of English showed low reliability on the same translation pairs and they tended to choose one word for the same translation pairs. These results imply that L1 mediation may not operate in the contextualized word processing for advanced users. Further recall sessions also suggest that L1 lemma mediation may be much stronger in the decontextualized word association task and for intermediate level users of English, while the advanced level users may access L2 lexicon more conceptually. Prior studies have reported that L1 lemma mediation is valid in processing L2 words (Jing, 2002, 2004; Kwon, 2005). On the other hand, this finding has been criticized from a methodological point of view (Vespoor, 2008). According to the criticism, though L1 lemma mediation has been captured, it is mainly based on a difference in reaction time of the decontextualized lexical judgment test. Therefore, this study investigates L1 lemma mediation by comparing how intermediate (n=3) and advanced Korean users of English (n=3) respond to the decontextualized word pairs and contextualized sentence completion items. Due to the contradictory findings and the methodological development in cross-linguistic studies (Fizpatrick, 2007; Jarvis & Pavlenko, 2008), native speakers of English (n=3) were also recruited for the study in order to determine the strength of the semantic relations of the word pairs. A two-part lexical judgment questionnaire, which consists of twenty decontextualized word association pairs and ten contextualized sentence completion items, was distributed to the nine research participants. And the following recall sessions were conducted with the participants to examine their perceived similarity (Javis & Pavlenko, 2008; Kellerman, 1977) of the word pairs. The first part of the questionnaire covers ten same translation word pairs and ten different translation pairs; these questions asked the participants’ perception regarding semantic overlap of the noun pairs. Participants showed their semantic judgment through a six-point Likert scale. The second part of the questionnaire consists of ten sentence completion questions; these items asked the participants to choose either the same or the different translation pairs. Findings from the first part of the questionnaire, the word association task, portray that the same translation pairs (M=4.87, SD=.75) seem to be more semantically related in comparison to different translation pairs (M=4.52, SD=.58). This result can validate the prior findings regarding the effect of L1 lemma mediation of L2 processing (Jing, 2002, 2004; Kwon, 2005). However, in the sentence completion task, advanced Korean users of English showed low reliability (Cronbach's = -.275) on the same translation pairs and they, like the intermediate group participants, also tended to choose one word for the same translation pairs [ X2 (1, 0.05)=8.58, ＜.001, two-ways]. These results imply that L1 mediation may not operate in the contextualized word processing for advanced users. Further recall sessions also suggest that L1 lemma mediation may be much stronger in the decontextualized word association task and for intermediate level users of English, while the advanced level users may access L2 lexicon more conceptually.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract