The Study Of Mental Lexicon Structure Of Chinese EFL Learners

The present study investigates the response patterns of word association in Chinese EFL learners' mental lexicon.It aims to find out what is the nature of L2 mental lexicon structure,what are the of proficiency effects on predominant features of Chinese EFL learners' mental lexicon structure,and what are the relationships between depth of individual word knowledge and the predominant features of Chinese EFL learners' mental lexicon structure.Seventy learners of English selected from a Chinese university participated in this study,including thirty-five high L2 proficiency EFL learners and thirty-five medium L2 proficiency EFL learners.All of them are majoring in English.Test materials include sixty English words balanced on lexical class(noun,verb and adjective)and word frequency(high and low).All subjects were employed a Vocabulary Level Test,a Vocabulary Knowledge Scale Test and a Word Association Test.All the results were classified into paradigmatic responses,syntagmatic responses,encyclopedic responses,encyclopedic responses and no response.Findings of the research include: 1)The Chinese EFL learners' lexicon is predominantly syntagmatically organized.All of the subjects produce a large amount of syntagmatic responses and paradigmatic responses.The proportion of syntagmatic responses is significantly higher than that of paradigmatic responses in two groups respectively.2)Despite the overall resemblance between high L2 proficiency level subjects and medium L2 proficiency level subjects,the proportion of paradigmatic responses to high L2 proficiency level subjects is significantly higher than that of medium L2 proficiency level subjects.3)The depth of individual word knowledge has significant influence on the syntagmatic-paradigmatic shift in EFL learners' mental lexicon.The findings have important implications both theoretically and pedagogically.It indicates that the structure of Chinese EFL learners' mental lexicon is syntagmatically organized,and reveals that the proportion of paradigmatic responses is positively related to L2 proficiency level.Findings also reveal the need for Chinese EFL teachers to strengthen the internal connection of the EFL learners' mental lexicon,and the necessity for students to undertake extensive reading.