Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted The Role of Word Class and Semantic Congruency in L2 Word Associations(Ball State University, 2024) Alsubaie, Munahi Faris; Hamada, MegumiWord knowledge is integral to all aspects of second language acquisition (e.g., Nation, 2001). Word association, a cognitively semantic activity, entails the presentation of stimulus words to participants and asks them to respond with the first word that comes to mind upon seeing a stimulus word. Word association performance is relevant to L2 lexical knowledge as it can provide insights into the vocabulary size (e.g., Fitzpatrick, 2006) and depth (e.g., Wolter, 2001), allowing researchers to assess specific aspects of L2 learners’ lexical structure (e.g., Fitzpatrick, 2020). Research into L2 word association has grown during the past decades due to its ability to provide a window to the L2 learners’ mental lexicons, revealing the cognitive connections formed between the L2 words the learners have acquired. This study contributes to the L2 lexical research by exploring the knowledge that native Arabic-speaking L2 learners of English have about L2 words, enhancing our understanding of how L2 learners’ mental lexicons are structured. Specifically, this study investigated the effects of word class and semantic congruency on word response behaviors of native Arabic-speaking L2 learners of English in comparison to native English speakers, since the cognitive and word recognition strategies of the former might be influenced by their L1 strategies. Two groups, an Arabic L1 group (n = 24) and an English L1 group (n = 23), performed a timed online word association task using Qualtrics, in which they typed the first word that came to mind after seeing each of fifty stimulus words on the screen. The stimulus words were from five different word class categories: verb, noun, adjective, adverb, and preposition, with ten items from each cate-gory, half of which were not semantically identical between Arabic and English. The results showed that both the word class and semantic congruency in the stimuli significantly affected the word response behaviors of native Arabic-speaking L2 learners of English and native speakers of English. All participants showed a preference for giving syntagmatic responses for the word class Verb, while showing a preference for providing paradigmatic responses for the other word classes presented. Additionally, the results revealed a statistically significant difference in response times across the word class categories investigated, with the word class Adjective having faster response times in comparison to the other word classes and more Paradigmatic responses, a type that the participants in both groups showed a preference for. The results also revealed a significant statistical distinction in response times between the two groups, revealing that native speakers (NS) responded faster than their counterparts (NNS).69 0