Acquisition Of L2 Lexical Semantic Relations By Advanced Chinese ESL Learners

The study on second language vocabulary acquisition has received much attention and made great progress during the past two decades. During this flourishing period, various researchers have contributed enormously to this field of study. At the same time, the study on L1 lexical semantic relations has also enjoyed great popularity. Nevertheless, none of the recent research has conducted a thorough and systematic study of the acquisition of lexical semantic relations in a second language. It reflects the status quo in this field, i.e., the lack of a consensus about the issue of lexical semantic relations and a definite construct of the relevant concepts. However, the study of the acquisition of L2 lexical semantic relations will add more insights into the L2 mental lexicon, because these relations represent a higher hierarchy in the organization of the L2 mental lexicon.The present study aimed to investigate two of English paradigmatic lexical semantic relations, i.e., synonymy and antonymy, and their acquisition by advanced Chinese ESL learners in the classroom instruction setting. Specifically, this study addressed four questions:(1) What are the differences between advanced Chinese ESL learners and native speakers of English in terms of acquisition of synonymy and antonymy? (2) Will a semantic processing task help advanced Chinese ESL learners acquire synonymy in a significant manner? (3) What is the route of acquisition of antonymy by advanced Chinese ESL learners in the classroom instruction setting? (4) What are the main factors influencing the acquisition of English synonymy and antonymy by advanced Chinese ESL learners.In order to answer the above questions, a comprehensive review of relevant literature was in order. The review consisted of two strands:literature relevant to second language vocabulary acquisition and relevant to lexical semantic relations. First, studies on word knowledge types and a framework of word knowledge were reviewed. Secondly, studies on word knowledge measurement and relevant empirical experiments were described. Thirdly, MacWhinney's (1989,2005) Competition Model was mentioned as a macro theory of vocabulary development and acquisition, and three micro theories were also reviewed as theories of L2 vocabulary acquisition; along with that, the empirical studies on L2 vocabulary acquisition were reviewed as well. Fourthly, a comprehensive survey of the theories concerning lexical semantic relations was conducted. Lastly, research related to lexical semantic relations was reviewed. The literature review reveals that there is a gap at the interface of L2 vocabulary acquisition study and lexical semantic relations study. In order to fill the gap, we propose to conduct an empirical study concerning the acquisition of two important lexical semantic relations (synonymy and antonymy) in English by advanced Chinese ESL learners. The study of L2 lexical semantic relations is important to the study of L2 acquisition because the former might shed light on the internal organization of bilingual mental lexicon of language learners. Therefore, we need to develop an original idea about the framework in which we can conduct empirical studies. On the basis of the proposal, an operational definition of synonymy and antonymy was suggested and a developmental model for acquisition of L2 lexical semantic relations was proposed. Then, with a corpus-driven approach and experimental design, this study analyzed quantitatively the acquisition of L2 lexical semantic relations by advanced Chinese ESL learners.The present study consisted of two relatively independent experiments. The synonym differentiation test aimed to test the acquisition of English synonym by advanced Chinese ESL learners, whereas the antonymous pair canonicity judgment test aimed to test the acquisition of English antonymy by advanced and upper-intermediate Chinese ESL learners. In the meantime, receptive vocabulary knowledge test, productive vocabulary knowledge test, Word Associates Test (WAT) and Test for English Majors Grade 4 were also administered to the advanced Chinese ESL learners to depict the profiles of their L2 lexical competence and general L2 competence. The two experiments were mainly cross-sectional studies. A short-range longitudinal study was included in synonym differentiation test to investigate the possible benefit of semantic processing in the acquisition of L2 synonymy, and two levels of participants in the antonymous pair canonicity judgment test would reveal the difference and relation between two stages of acquisition process. A group of native speakers of English were also tested with synonym differentiation test and antonymous pair canonicity judgment test to be compared with the performance of Chinese ESL learners.The test materials adopted in this study mainly came from two sources. These tests aimed to measure the learners' lexical competence included receptive vocabulary knowledge test, productive vocabulary knowledge test, and Word Associates Test (WAT); they were designed by renowned L2 researchers in respective fields. The first two tests (the Levels Test of Vocabulary and the Productive Levels Test Version C) were designed by Paul Nation, and the third one was designed by John Read. The tests aimed to measure the learners' competence on English synonymy and antonymy were designed by the author, with the first adapted from a version used by Jiang (2004) and complemented with some concordance lines from British National Corpus (BNC), and the second compiled using frequency and MI value of candidate antonymous pairs. The relevant information was derived from a 400-million-word online corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary American English, established by Professor Mark Davies from Brigham Young University of the United States, on the assumption of Co-occurrence Hypothesis of antonymous pairs. The statistical process was automatically and conveniently carried out. The pilot study proved the two tests conformed to the requirement of the experiments.By comparing the performance of advanced Chinese ESL learners and English native speakers on synonym differentiation test, the study has shown that the scores obtained by advanced Chinese ESL learners were significantly lower than those by English native speakers. By comparing the performance of advanced Chinese ESL learners and English native speakers on antonym canonicity judgment test, the study has revealed that advanced Chinese ESL learners exhibit significantly different behavior from English native speakers in terms of the antonymous pairs (28 pairs out of the total 76 pairs). These antonymous pairs include canonical antonymous pairs as well as ordinary antonymous pairs. The cause of this performance is complicated and concerns many factors, including but not limited to the co-occurring frequency of the antonymous pairs, their semantic ranges and their conceptual contrast. The co-occurrence frequency and MI value prove to contribute most to the scores by advanced Chinese ESL learners and scores by English native speakers as well.By comparing the performance of an experimental group and two control groups in a three-stage experiment of synonymy acquisition, the study has demonstrated that a semantic processing approach (a deep mental processing that requires analysis of semantic contents of the material and thus results in a more durable memory trace) can help the advanced Chinese ESL learners transfer from a semantic-based analytic system to a usage-based analytic system, and thus acquire synonymy in a manner significantly more effective than previous approaches.In an attempt to explore the routes adopted by advanced Chinese ESL learners in the acquisition of antonymy in the classroom instruction setting, the author applied antonym canonicity judgment test to an upper-intermediate population (freshmen of English major) and compared their performance with that of advanced learners and English native speakers. The study has suggested that the upper-intermediate learners deviate from the performance of English native speakers in a larger degree than they deviate from that of advanced learners. One point worthy of mentioning is that only the co-occurrence frequency of antonymous pairs contributes significantly to the freshmen's scores.In an attempt to explore the main factors influencing the acquisition of L2 synonymy and antonymy by advanced Chinese ESL learners, the author compared their performance on synonym differentiation test and antonym canonicity judgment test with their performance on standardized competence test (TEM4) in general and lexical competence test in particular. The study has shown that the receptive vocabulary correlates most strongly to the performance on synonym differentiation test.Based on these findings, the research discusses some theoretical and pedagogical implications that the present study has for English teaching and learning in the Chinese classroom instruction setting. First, a semantic processing approach could be taken to ensure the process of acquiring L2 lexical semantic relations far more smooth than alternative arrangement. Secondly, since Chinese ESL learners usually have limited exposure to English input, explicit learning and teaching of L2 LSRs in the classroom will play a key role in L2 LSR acquisition. Finally, the limitations of the present study are pointed out and suggestions for future research are offered.