Cross-language Semantic Activation Of English Ambiguous Words In Chinese EFL Learners With Different Second Language Proficiency

On the basis of the Parallel Activation Model of bilingual processing, the present study utilized the experimental paradigm of cross-language repetition priming to investigate the cross-language semantic activation in the processing of the English ambiguous words. The participants were Chinese EFL learners with different second language proficiency. It was found that in the contextually isolated word condition, both the high- and the low-level EFL learners would activate the Chinese translation equivalents of the dominant meanings of the English ambiguous words but would not activate the Chinese equivalents of the subordinate meanings (Experiment Ⅰ). However, in the condition of the sentential context, when the context biased toward the dominant meaning of the ambiguous word, both the high- and the low-level EFL learners would activate the translation equivalents of the dominant meanings but would not activate the translation equivalents of the subordinate meanings; while when the context biased toward the subordinate meaning, both groups of the participants would activate the translation equivalents of the dominant and the subordinate meanings, but the cross language activation of the dominant meaning was much weaker than that of the subordinate meaning (Experiment Ⅱ). The results showed that the cross-language activation of the English ambiguous words for Chinese EFL learners was influenced by context instead of second language proficiency.