Semantic Interference In Cross-language Lexical Activation Of English And Chinese Among College Students

Based on the revised hierarchical model and spreading activation model of semantic knowledge, the present study aims to investigate the semantic interference in cross-language lexical activation of English and Chinese among college students. To be specific, there are two research questions to be answered:(1) What are the differences of semantic effect between Chinese lexical activation and English lexical activation for college students? (2) How does semantic interference affect Chinese to English and English to Chinese cross-language lexical activation for English majors and non-English majors?To answer the research questions, both word association test and cross-language translation decision task were administered, and a total of 39 English majors and 39 non-English majors participated in the study. After collecting the data, descriptive analysis and quantitative analysis were carried out. In regard to the quantitative data analysis, the IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 was used, and four statistic methods were used, consisting of frequency table, cross tabulation, chi-square test and independent samples t-test.The results show that the storage of both Chinese mental lexicon and English mental lexicon are mainly based on semantic connections either in paradigmatic relations or syntagmatic relations; however, the degree of semantic influence is variant. Syntagmatic relations take the dominant place in Chinese word activation while paradigmatic responses take the first place and phonological factors also play an important part in English word activation. Semantic interference does exist in cross-language lexical activation and asymmetrical semantic interference appears, in which there is a stronger semantic interference when L1 activates L2 than when L2 activates L1 both for English majors or non-English majors. There is a stronger semantic interference in non-English group than English group in both L1-L2 direction and L2-L1 direction.Taking all these findings into consideration, the present study has some theoretical and pedagogical implications for English vocabulary learning. Theoretically, studying the Chinese and English cross-language lexical activation from the perspective of semantic inference can enrich and complete the related theories for the future study of English learner’s mental lexicon and lexical activation. Pedagogically, since words are stored mainly through semantic relations, in the process of remembering English vocabulary, Chinese English learners need to establish semantic network and deepen lexical knowledge. In addition, realizing the existence of semantic interference in the process of word translation can help reduce translation errors and promote foreign language learning.