Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: The Effects of Semantic Relatedness, Form Similarity, and Translation Direction

Abstract

Characteristics of vocabulary lists as well as study and test translation direction may affect the ease of learning second language (L2) vocabulary. We examined immediate and delayed test performance of first language (L1) English speakers learning a fixed set of L2 vocabulary placed on lists formed by crossing semantic relatedness (unrelated vs. related) with L2 orthographic form similarity (not similar vs. similar). During the study phase, half the participants translated from L2 to L1 and half from L1 to L2; tests were then taken in both directions. Semantic relatedness in the absence of form similarity improved accuracy when the first test taken translated from L2 to L1, and tended to hurt accuracy when the first test taken translated from L1 to L2; it sometimes increased confusion errors. Form similarity usually hurt accuracy and always increased confusion errors. The combination of the L1‐to‐L2 study direction with the optimal semantic and form conditions yielded the best long‐term performance.

Teachers’ Verbal Lexical Explanation for Second Language Vocabulary Learning: A Meta‐Analysis

“…Kroll and Stewart's (1994) revised hierarchical model offers a similar prediction regarding the role of the L1 in the early stage of L2 acquisition, proposing that L2 users are likely to gain access to the L2 word concept through the lexical link from the L2 word to its L1 equivalents (rather than the direct link between the L2 word and concept) at earlier stages (see Kemp & McDonald, 2021, for a recent study broadly supporting this framework). However, it should be noted that, according to this model, the lexical links from the L2 word to its L1 equivalent do not disappear even at later stages when a more direct link between the L2 word and its concept starts to be built.…”

Novel Word Learning Among Bilinguals Can Be Better Through the (Dominant) First Language Than Through the Second Language

“…Novel language learning is a common task that extends beyond monolinguals learning a second language (L2) to bilinguals learning a third language (L3) or a fourth one. Several variables have been highlighted as affecting novel language learning, including the age of the learner (Birdsong, 2005), the context of learning (e.g., Linck, Kroll, & Sunderman, 2009), previous experience with language learning (e.g., Hirosh & Degani, 2018), the typological similarity of the novel language to the language(s) known (Rothman, 2011), the relationships among the words being learned, and the direction of translation during training and testing (Kemp & McDonald, 2021). However, little research has examined how the language of instruction (LOI) affects learning (though discussed by Bogulski, Bice, & Kroll, 2019 and by Tomoschuk, Duyck, Hartsuiker, Ferreira, & Gollan, 2021).…”

Orthographic Priming in Second‐Language Visual Word Recognition

“…Finally, Jiang and Zhang (2021) also attributed form prominence in the L2 lexicon to a weak connection between L2 lexical form and meaning. A weaker form‐meaning link in L2 than in L1 has been well supported, for example, by a weaker cross‐language priming effect in the L2–L1 direction than the reverse (e.g., Jiang, 1999; Keatley, Spinks, & De Gelder, 1994; and see Kemp & MacDonald, 2021, for related findings, albeit not a priming study), by the finding that semantic manipulation was more likely to affect L1–L2 translation than L2–L1 translation (e.g., Kroll & Stewart, 1994; Sholl, Sankaranarayanan, & Kroll, 1995), and by the finding that bilinguals responded to emotion words in their L2 with physical responses that are more reduced than their responses to such words in their L1 (e.g., see Harris, Ayçiçegi, & Gleason, 2003, for skin conductance response measures; Toivo & Scheepers, 2019, for pupillary response measures). A weak form‐meaning connection may also have an indirect effect of enhancing form‐based connections in the L2 lexicon.…”

“…The second cause that Jiang and Zhang (2021) suggested is a focus on lexical form in the early stage of L2 learning. Although the meaning and syntactic features of a new word can be and are often obtained through its L1 translation, its lexical form (pronunciation and spelling) has to be learned, which often creates a great deal of difficulty (e.g., Kemp & McDonald, 2021; Saigh & Schmitt, 2012). Thus, lexical form learning, for example, through the comparison of words of similar forms, may become the target of attentional focus in learning and teaching (e.g., Laufer & Girsai, 2008).…”