Innovation in Language Learning

Researchers, as well as practitoners recognise vocabulary acquisition as one of the most important, if not the most important component of foreign language acquistion (Schmitt, 2000;  Read, 2000; Nation, 2011), but also as the major source of problems for the learners (Meara, 1980). Therefore, one of the central areas of EFL research is how native and foreign language lexicons are processed and stored in the mind of a foreign language learner.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of age and level of overall language proficiency on the L1 and L2 mental lexicon structure. The participants (N=100) were Croatian L1 speakers of different age (preschool children, school children and adults) and of different L2 (English) language proficiency (beginners and intermediate level). The subjects’ task was to provide single-response word associations to a set of lexical equivalents in a word association test, in either their L1 or L2. 

The quantitative and qualitative analysis of responses was carried out to determine the proportion of paradigmatic, syntagmatic and phonological responses produced by each group of subjects.

In line with the previous research (Marian, 2009; Paradis, 2004; Pavlenko, 2009) and in support of the idea of developmental shift related to mental lexicon reorganisation in both L1 and L2 (Kroll, 1993) the obtained results show the effect of both factors, age and language proficiency on the structure of L2 mental lexicon. However, they also idicate that regardless of age, both L1 and L2 lexicons are organized as semantic networks based primarily on paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations between the items.

As such, the findings of the study suggest that the teaching process should aim to develop such techniques that will foster integration of new vocabulary into already existing lexical networks thus enabling the networks to cosolidate and restructure at a novel level as coherent wholes.