ERIC Number: EJ819362
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Aug
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0155-0640
EISSN: N/A
Girl--Lass or Curl? Word Associations in Second Language Learners
Norrby, Catrin; Hakansson, Gisela
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, v30 n2 p22.1-22.17 Aug 2007
One of the ways to investigate the mental lexicon is to use word association tests. Empirical studies comparing associations by children and adults have indicated a tendency for children to give syntagmatic responses, whereas adults give paradigmatic responses. In order to investigate lexical development in L2 acquisition of Swedish we collected data from two groups of students, one in Malmo, Sweden and one in Melbourne. Part of the Melbourne group also took the association test in their L1 six months later. Native speakers were used as a control group. The results demonstrate that learners in general tend to focus more on form than content compared to native speakers. This trend was particularly strong for the L2 group in Melbourne who also exhibited more variation in their responses compared to the L2 group in Sweden and the NS control group. (Contains 7 tables, 2 figures, and 2 endnotes.)
Descriptors: Control Groups, Associative Learning, Foreign Countries, Vocabulary Development, Native Speakers, Learning Processes, Language Processing, Swedish, Educational Environment, Cultural Context, College Students, Language Tests
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia; Sweden
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A