An ERPs Study Of L1Lexicalization Effect On L2Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition

Vocabulary acquisition, as a part of language acquisition, is an important topicin language research. Nagy, Herman and Anderson (1985) firstly put forward theconcept of "incidental vocabulary acquisition". Laufer and Hulstijn(2001) definesincidental vocabulary acquisition as "the accidental learning of information withoutthe intention of remembering that information", which becomes the heated topic ofthe vocabulary acquisition researches.The studies on vocabulary acquisition have long been focused on the influencingfactors of learners, vocabulary, context and discourse. However, the issue of theimpact of L1lexicalization on L2vocabulary acquisition receives little attention.Blum and Leveston (1979) point the importance of the influence of mother tongue onincidental vocabulary acquisition; Paribaknt (2005) uses the ways of think-aloud tostudy the L1lexicalization effect on the EFL (English as Foreign Language) learnersof Farsi native speakers. Chen and Truscot（t2010）make a study on L1lexicalizationof Chinese EFL learners. Likewise, De Bot and Schreuder (1993), Yu (1996), Swan(1997), Sj holm (1998) and so on have made similar researches on the impact of L1lexicalization on L2vocabulary acquisition. These studies merely point out the issue,but do not point out that how L1lexicalization affects incidental vocabularyacquisition and how L1lexicalization affects the development of incidentalvocabulary acquisition. Jiang(2000) put forward the three stages’ theoretical modelof the development of lexical representation, which provides a new method forvocabulary acquisition. Therefore, how does L1lexicalization affect the lexicaldevelopment in every stage?With the development of science and technology, ERPs (Event-RelatedPotentials) technique offers new ways for language research. Therefore, the presentstudy attempts to probe the L1lexicalization’s effect on L2incidental vocabularyacquisition by using ERPs technique, and the research question is what is the effect of L1lexicalization on L2incidental vocabulary acquisition.The present study is set to research the effect of L1lexicalization on L2incidental vocabulary acquisition by using ERPs techniques. The present studychooses the Chinese EFL (English as Foreign Language) learners as the participantsand chooses the English words which are lexicalized in Chinese and English wordswhich are not as target words. Embedded in reading text, the incidental vocabularyacquisition happens in reading tasks. Afterwards, the ERPs technique is used to studythe results of the incidental vocabulary acquisition. By comparing the different ERPsdata and statistic data of ERPs components N400and P600, the present study tries tofind the impact of L1lexicalization on L2incidental vocabulary acquisition. Inaddition, the present study tries to explain the reasons in terms of the dynamicprocess of the development of lexical representation.The experiment is completed in key lab of cognitive neuroscience and foreignlanguage learning in Sichuan International Studies University.The experiment wasmade by applying the software E-prime1.1and results were collected and recordedby the software Neuroscan4.5. Then, the ERPs data were treated by the off-lineanalysis and the outcomes were put into the statistic software SPSS16.0.By comparing the two kinds of data, the conclusions can be summarized asfollows:(1) According to the results of ERPs component P600related to formacquisition, the amplitude of non-lexicalized words is stronger than lexicalized wordsfor Chinese EFL learners. This indicates that the L1lexicalization has effects on L2vocabulary form incidental acquisition, and the acquisition of the form fornon-lexicalized words is better than the lexicalized words. According to the threestages’ model, the first stage is the formal stage of the development of lexicalrepresentation, in which there is only lexeme of L2vocabulary namely the phoneticand formal information in the L2lexical entry. Thus, both lexicalized words andnon-lexicalized words can reach to this stage. But due to the higher salience of the non-lexicalized words in the passage, the formal acquisition of non-lexicalized wordsis better than the lexicalized words.(2) According to the results of ERPs component N400related to meaningacquisition, the amplitude of non-lexicalized words is stronger than lexicalized wordsfor Chinese EFL learners. This indicates that the L1lexicalization has effects on L2vocabulary meaning incidental acquisition. And the acquisition of meaning forlexicalized words is better than the non-lexicalized words. According to the threestages’ model, the second stage is the L1lemma mediation stage, in which theequivalence L1lemma mediates and helps the development of lexical representation.And learners can not in turn active the appropriate existing lemma in their mentallexicon when acquiring the non-lexicalized words’ meaning. On the contrary, there isno such case for lexicalized words. Therefore, for lexicalized words, the second L1lemma mediation stage can be reached and thus can get to the last L2integrationstage. While for non-lexicalized words, the second L1lemma mediation stage cannot be reached and thus can not get to the last L2integration stage.