Jul 2026· ELT research journal· Vol 15, pp. 1-27· 0 citations· 33 references
Abstract
Vocabulary knowledge is a key dimension of second language (L2) proficiency, yet the network organisation of words in the mental lexicon warrants further exploration. This study investigated the L2 English lexical associations of Turkish learners to unravel an understudied topic within this specific context. The study further examined the impact of learner proficiency and lexical properties on participants’ associative patterns. A Word Association Task (WAT), with 96 cue words from three lexical classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives) and two frequency bands (0–1000 and 2000–3000), was administered to 120 tertiary-level learners across two groups (lower vs. higher proficiency). The findings revealed a general dominance of meaning-based (semantic) associations. However, proficiency level and word-related differences were observed for position-based (collocational) and form-based (phonological/orthographic) responses: higher-proficiency learners produced a greater proportion of position-based links, whereas lower-proficiency ones relied more on form-based associations. Lexical class also shaped associative behaviour; while nouns and adjectives elicited largely semantic links, verbs, particularly lower-frequency ones, were more likely to trigger co-occurrence combinations. These findings provide insights into the developmental trajectory of the L2 mental lexicon of Turkish learners and offer pedagogical implications for designing vocabulary instruction that fosters deeper lexical networks.
Lexical availability (LA) refers to the subset of the mental lexicon that speakers readily activate in response to specific thematic prompts. It reflects the accessibility of lexical knowledge and is commonly characterized by the degree of lexical consensus observed across members of a speech community. This study investigates comparative intra-individual LA in speakers with English as the dominant language (DL) and Spanish as a heritage language (HL), addressing a gap in cross-language, within-subject research.
A convenience sample of 31 undergraduate students at a university in California, USA, completed a free-association LA test in both English and Spanish according to the Pan-Hispanic Lexical Availability Project. Responses were lemmatized and processed with Dispogen; analyses examined size, consensus, core versus peripheral composition, and patterns of thematic contamination across domains (e.g., professions, city).
Across most domains, the DL (English) exhibited a broader, more consensual lexical core, while the HL (Spanish) retained a longer low-frequency tail containing items that appear culturally specific, toponyms, and identity-linked references. Analyses also revealed systematic thematic contamination between languages and clear differences in the makeup of core versus peripheral lexica.
Findings suggest that English-dominant, Spanish-heritage speakers maintain distinct distributions of high-consensus (core) and low-frequency (peripheral) vocabulary across languages. These patterns have direct pedagogical implications: empirical guidance from LA profiles can inform targeted interventions that combine heritage-language maintenance with focused instruction in formal and academic registers, and help shape institutional policies supporting bilingual education.
Eladio Donoso, Pablo M Oliva Parera· International Journal of Bil...· 0 citations
Lexical bundles play an important role in language production, improving individuals’ language proficiency (Hyland, 2008). While most previous studies have explored lexical bundles used in written discourse, little attention has been paid to analyzing lexical bundles employed in oral presentations. The present study aimed to investigate the use of lexical bundles in 30 oral presentations delivered by Thai English as a Foreign Language (EFL) undergraduate students. Following Biber et al.’s (2004) taxonomy, the findings indicate that four-word lexical bundles serve various discourse functions. Discourse organizers were found to be the most dominant functional category, primarily used to structure ideas, manage the flow of information, and maintain coherence in spoken academic discourse. It was also found that verb phrase fragments were the most frequent structural pattern, reflecting students’ preference for formulaic expressions that support fluency and speech planning. However, the absence of several functional and structural categories suggests a limited spoken linguistic repertoire of academic formulaic language. Therefore, explicit instruction and practice in using a wider range of lexical bundles are recommended to enhance students’ fluency, coherence, and academic expression in spoken discourse.
Vocabulary inference is a crucial skill that enables English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words during reading. This study investigated English-majored students at Thu Dau Mot University, focusing on their perceptions of vocabulary inference and their ability to identify three linguistic cues: participial-adjective, morphemic, and part-of-speech cues. A quantitative research design supplemented by informal interviews was employed with 118 participants. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire and interview responses. The findings indicated that students generally recognized the importance of vocabulary inference for reading comprehension. However, their ability to utilize linguistic cues varied considerably. More than half of the participants demonstrated low or very low awareness of morphemic cues, whereas recognition of part-of-speech cues was moderate. Students also experienced difficulties identifying participial-adjective forms, particularly when they functioned as noun pre-modifiers. Interview findings suggested that these challenges stemmed from limited morphological knowledge and insufficient attention to grammatical features during reading. The findings indicate that effective vocabulary inference requires the integration of contextual, morphological, grammatical, and participial-adjective information. The study highlights the need for explicit instruction in linguistic cue identification to improve learners' inferencing ability, reading comprehension, and vocabulary development.
Hung Nguyen Van· Technium Social Sciences Jou...· 0 citations
Research on the cognate facilitation effect (CFE) in sequential bilinguals and trilinguals' lexical processing has offered important insights into the structure of the multilingual mental lexicon. A key cross‐linguistic factor that has received particular attention is second language (L2) proficiency, yet its role in different‐script trilinguals remains underexplored. The present study addressed this issue in L2 and L3 lexical processing among Chinese–English–Spanish trilinguals using lexical decision tasks. By manipulating L2 proficiency and measuring the strength of CFE through reaction times and accuracy, the study aimed to investigate orthographic‐overlap‐driven, form‐based cross‐language activation between the two non‐native languages. The findings provide preliminary evidence that the strength of form‐based L2–L3 cross‐language activation may vary with L2 proficiency, and they are compatible with the possibility that more entrenched lexical representations reduce reliance on orthographic overlap during visual word recognition.
Hao Chen, Fei Gao, Chuqiao Song et al.· International Journal of App...· 0 citations
Abstract The study aims to compare the receptive and expressive vocabulary of Turkish-German bilinguals living in Germany with that of monolinguals (Turkish) residing in Turkey, focusing on factors such as gender, word themes, and frequency levels of the words in their first language. To this end, 66 Turkish-German bilingual students from Germany and 60 monolingual students aged 12–15 from Turkey were included in the study. To determine the participants’ receptive and expressive vocabulary, 32 words classified into 8 themes were selected from the first 4,000 words of the Turkish National Corpus. Receptive and expressive vocabulary tests were then administered for these words. The results of the study revealed that both monolinguals and bilinguals demonstrated higher success in receptive vocabulary compared to expressive vocabulary. It was observed that the expressive vocabulary of bilinguals varied according to the frequency levels of the words, with higher scores in high-frequency words ranked within the first 2,000 compared to medium-frequency words ranked between 2,001 and 4,000. It was found that bilingual female students were more successful in expressive vocabulary, while the gender variable did not create any differences in the monolingual student group. In thematic analysis, significant differences were found in favor of monolinguals in the categories of transportation, animals, and time, while no significant differences were observed between bilinguals and monolinguals in the themes of food, clothing, organs, materials, and family.
Burak Tüfekçioğlu· Poznan Studies in Contempora...· 0 citations
Lexical and syntactic complexity are important indicators of second language writing proficiency, particularly in assessment-oriented contexts such as IELTS Writing Task 2. However, limited attention has examined whether selected complexity measures can distinguish closely related IELTS band levels. A small-scale learner corpus of 30 essays, with 10 essays per band level, was analyzed quantitatively. Lexical diversity was measured using the Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD), lexical sophistication was operationalized as the percentage of Academic Word List (AWL) items, and syntactic complexity was assessed through mean sentence length (MSL). One-way ANOVA showed a significant difference in lexical diversity, whereas AWL percentage and MSL showed non-significant upward trends. Post-hoc comparisons indicated that the significant MTLD difference occurred between Bands 6 and 8 rather than between immediately adjacent bands. Because the corpus consists of band-labeled instructional essays, the findings should be interpreted as exploratory rather than generalizable evidence of IELTS band distinctions.
Van Uyen Truong· International Journal of TES...· 0 citations