Abstract
To determine when and how L2 learners start to process L2 words affectively and semantically, we conducted a longitudinal study on their interaction in adult L2 learners. In four test sessions, spanning half a year of L2 learning, we monitored behavioral and ERP learning-related changes for one and the same set of words by means of a primed lexical-decision paradigm with L1 primes and L2 targets. Sensitivity rates, accuracy rates, RTs, and N400 amplitude to L2 words and pseudowords improved significantly across sessions. A semantic priming effect (e.g, prime “driver”facilitating response to target “street”) was found in accuracy rates and RTs when collapsing Sessions 1 to 4, while this effect modulated ERP amplitudes within the first 300 ms of L2 target processing. An overall affective priming effect (e.g., “sweet” facilitating”taste”) was also found in RTs and ERPs (posterior P1). Importantly, the ERPs showed an L2 valence effect across sessions (e.g., positive words were easier to process than neutral words), indicating that L2 learners were sensitive to L2 affective meaning. Semantic and affective priming interacted in the N400 time-window only in Session 4, implying that they affected meaning integration during L2 immersion together. The results suggest that L1 and L2 are initially processed semantically and affectively via relatively separate channels that are more and more linked contingent on L2 exposure.
Highlights
The importance of foreign language expertise to diverse strands of life motivates many adults to learn a new language at a later age
In the ERP analysis of each session, we considered ERP components associated with different stages of word processing [18] that are sensitive to semantic and/or affective meanings of words
A 4 x 2 x 2 x 2 repeated measures ANOVA over accuracy rates from 24 subjects revealed a significant main effect of semantic relatedness (F (1, 23) = 4.51, p = .045, ηp2 = .16), indicating that more errors occurred in judging the lexicality of L2 targets following L1 unrelated primes than following L1 related primes
Summary
The importance of foreign language expertise to diverse strands of life (social, cultural, and professional, to name a few) motivates many adults to learn a new language at a later age. L1 Emotion and Meaning Affect L2 Processing in Learners forms and their semantic meanings. These studies have shown that foreign word learning is accompanied by rapid changes in adults’ representational structures and brain responses (EEG), as well as in accuracy and reaction time (RT). How and when an adult L2 learner acquires the emotional properties of a word’s meaning during L2 learning and immersion remains an open question. This topic, linking emotion to cognition in L2 learners, is investigated in the present study
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