Multicompetence and L2 users' associative links: being unlike nativelike

Abstract

The study set out to examine the effects of multicompetence on proficient L2 users' associative links. Three groups of 36 participants each were recruited – NSs of English, NSs of Bulgarian, and proficient Bulgarian L2 users of English – who completed a familiarity and word association test. The findings revealed that L2 users' natural drive to main connectivity of their lexicons was the motivation for their building lexicosemantic connectedness – which, however, was unlike the patterns of connectivity maintained by the native speakers of both their languages. This showed that, as a result of their developing multicompetence, the L2 users were unlike nativelike in that they developed their lexicosemantic associative links favoring diversity over communality and language‐neutral idiosyncrasy over L1 or L2 nativelikeness.

Word association research and the L2 lexicon

“…However, they also acknowledged that their experimental design did not control for the effects of important variables such as concreteness and age of acquisition, leaving some question marks over their findings. Similarly, Zareva (2010Zareva ( , 2011 reported an interaction between participant proficiency, cue GC, and cue frequency, which resulted in significant differences in syntagmatic and paradigmatic responses, but was unable to identify the specific locus of this interaction, partly because of the lack of statistical power resulting from her use of only 12 cues from each GC. These points underline the need for methodological clarity in future L2 WA studies.…”

Cultural Conceptualization and Cross-Cultural Misunderstanding in Iranian English

“…Many word knowledge aspects, according to Schmitt (2014), are related to the use of vocabulary in context, that is, knowing where, when, and how to use it. Within the global dimensions paradigm too Zareva (2010) refers to the relationship between vocabulary growth and improvement in lexicon connectivity structure that adds to the depth of vocabulary knowledge. It follows that natives and nonnatives' success in communicating pragmatic meanings to each other is to a great extent dependent on non-natives' depth of vocabulary knowledge.…”

“…What is at issue in relation to native and non-native contacts and in relation to L2 acquisition, however, is why the majority of L2 learners lack the pragmatic competence that is needed for cross-cultural communication. Of course, Zareva (2010) believes that the ultimate goal of learning a second language is not to pass for a native. The researcher also emphasizes that comparing existing L2 associative behavior to that maintained by native speakers is a controversial one.…”

Universal structures and their functions in bilingual mental lexicon

“…При этом влияние иностранного языка на родной язык наблюдается не только в детском возрасте, когда система родного языка еще полностью не сформирована и не является стабильной [21], но и в ситуации обучения взрослых [17,23]. Из сказанного следует, что весь процесс освоения Я2 в подавляющем большинстве случаев подразумевает бессознательное (или сознательное) установление сходства между единицами своего и чужого языков.…”