A Study Of Vocabulary Representation Of Proficient Vietnamese Chinese Learners

In psycholinguistics,the connection between the lexical and conceptual systems in second language learners(L2 learners)has always been one of the most commonly-investigated topics of bilingual lexical organization research.For many years,there has been a rapid rise in the use of different kinds of stimuli to characterize the nature of this connection.Recent developments in L2 learners' lexical representations have led to the three well-known models(i.e.the concept mediation model,the word association model and the revised hierarchical model).Remarkably,a number of studies using cognate words as experimental materials found out the phonological effects and the cognate priming advantage due to conceptual and phonological similarities across languages,and supported the bilingual interaction activation plus model(the BIA+model).However,it is worth noting that Vietnamese-Chinese cognates not only are similar in meaning but also overlap in phonological form,especially which is the so-called‘Sino-Vietnamese sounds'.This seems to indicate that,with the exception of the overlap in phonological and conceptual features,Sino-Vietnamese sounds also fit well into Chinese phonology.Therefore,there are now some concerns about the mechanism of processing Vietnamese-Chinese cognates and a question with regard to whether the lexical processing mechanism of Vietnamese people who learn and use Chinese language is a distinction or not.Therefore,the main aim of this paper was to examine(1)the long-term cross-language repetition priming effects,(2)the cross-language asymmetry,(3)the phonological similarity effects,and(4)the cognate priming advantage by using Sino-Vietnamese words as experimental stimuli and employing advanced Vietnamese Chinese learners as participants.Then,the current research explored the issue of lexical representations for advanced Vietnamese Chinese learners.The results of the study were that:(1)In the direction of L1 ? L2,long-term cross-language repetition priming effects were observed for both low-and highphonological similarity cognates.In the direction of L2?L1,this negative effect could be obtained under the noncognate presentation condition.(2)The asymmetrical cross-language priming effects were found.(3)Phonological similarity effects,and(4)the cognate priming advantage were also obtained when participants were processing word meanings.In addition,this research partially supported the revised hierarchical model and the BIA+ model.The author also proposed a lexical representation model for advanced Vietnamese Chinese learners.That is the more common features the two lexical systems share in terms of conceptual and phonological features,and Sino-Vietnamese sounds,the stronger the connection between Vietnamese and Chinese language is;and vice versa.It is generally concluded that Vietnamese learners of Chinese rely much on Sino-Vietnamese sounds when processing Chinese words.Moreover,they tend to make use of some phonological clues to understand Vietnamese terms.Utilizing the psycholinguistic research method that taps into mental lexical representations,the present study tried to explore more the nature of Sino-Vietnamese words and yielded more fruitful results in this research field.The findings of this research could be served as a reference for teaching and learning Chinese and Vietnamese vocabulary.