Abstract
Second language (L2) learners need to continually learn new L2 words as well as additional meanings of previously learned L2 words. The present study investigated the influence of semantic similarity on the growth curve of learning of artificially paired new meanings of previously known L2 words in Chinese–English bilinguals. The results of a translation recognition task showed that related meanings are learned faster and more accurately than unrelated meanings. The advantage of learning related new meaning persisted and increased for a week after learning the new meanings. These results suggest that semantic similarities impact the learning of new meanings for known L2 words, and that the shared features between previously known and new meanings of a word facilitate the process of incorporating the related new meaning into the lexical semantic network. Our results are discussed under the framework of the connectionist model.
Highlights
IntroductionGiven the prevalence of ambiguous words in natural language, learning ambiguous L2 words is inevitable and vital
Effective acquisition of vocabulary is essential to second language (L2) learners
The present study aimed to explore the extent to which semantic similarity impacts the learning of new meanings of familiar L2 words, its influence on the growth curve(s) of learning new meanings of familiar L2 words
Summary
Given the prevalence of ambiguous words in natural language, learning ambiguous L2 words is inevitable and vital. One important characteristic of ambiguous word acquisition is that the new meanings, usually learned at different times from the originals, can be more related or less related semantically to the known meaning(s) of the words (Rodd et al, 2012), that is, their degree of relatedness is a continuous gradient. Little is known about how semantic similarity influences the acquisition of new meanings of previously known L2 words. An already established semantic representation of a previously known meaning may facilitate or interfere with the process of bringing the new meaning into the lexical network. The present study aimed to investigate the influence of semantic similarity on learning of new meanings of previously learned L2 words
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