Evidence For Lexical-Conceptual Memory Representation Of The Chinese-English Bilinguals

Lexical-conceptual memory representation research was meant to analyze the organization and restoration of lexicon and conception in bilinguals. Early research showed that bilinguals’ two languages were divided into conceptual representation and lexical representation. The conceptual representation was shared while L1lexical representation was separated with L2lexical representation. Afterwards, researchers pointed out that the relation between conceptual representation and lexical representation was mediated by L2proficiency and therefore proposed three models:Word association model, concept mediation model and revised hierarchical model. The study on Chinese-English bilinguals would help us apprehend lexical-conceptual representation better.The present research explored memory representation of the Chinese-English bilinguals by employing tasks of three cognitive levels. The subjects were240students of Shandong University of Science and Technology. In the study, participants were instructed to complete lexical decision task in experiment1and2. The results showed Chinese-English bilinguals held strong link between L1representation and conceptual representation. In experiment3, participants were instructed to complete definition decision task. That the frequency of L2vocabulary mediated the access between L2representation and conceptual representation was testified. Participants in experiment4were demanded to finish translation task, the result showed that the link from L2to L1was stronger than the link from L1to L2. In conclusion, the final results supported the Revised Hierarchical Model. The specific results were as follows:a) Proficient and less proficient Chinese-English bilinguals both had stronger link between L1representation and conceptual representation than the link between L2representation and conceptual representation.b) Both proficient and less proficient Chinese-English bilinguals adopted the indirect access, i.e. linking to conceptual representation via L1representation in face of low-frequency words; while facing high-frequency ones, these two groups both chose to get linked directly between L2and conception.c) The link from L2to L1of both Proficient and less proficient Chinese-English bilinguals is stronger than the link from L1to L2.